


Curious Bob the Celestial Dog

by kitundercover



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Action, Adventure, Aliens, Cats?, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Zayn Malik/Liam Payne, Portals, Science, Science Fiction, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Some Humor, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-11-11 07:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11144073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitundercover/pseuds/kitundercover
Summary: Sci-Fi AU. Harry and Liam are humans, Louis and Zayn are from a different planet entirely and Niall's - something else.---A shadow blocks out the sun as Louis crowds into his space, shuffling up to stand between his knees. “You know people don’t usually stand that close to each other?” Harry grins, pushing himself up a little higher on his elbows.Louis shrugs. “You know there’s a lot of things I haven’t tried yet as a newly made human?”Harry’s throat goes dry.“There are all these chemicals, these feelings trying to make me do things,” Louis continues.“Oh?” Harry croaks. Not sure how they’ve suddenly gotten onto this topic.“I asked Niall about them, but I’m not sure he really understands these things.”“No, probably not.”"But I think maybe you do."





	1. Out of the blue

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for this came from a mixture of Douglas Adams and a dangerously high fever. 
> 
> Thank you to the amazing [austinattack](http://austinattack.tumblr.com/) and [zourry2k17](http://zourry2k17.tumblr.com/) for betaing for me!

**  
**

****_In a place that’s no place_

_On the edge of space_

_There exist some peculiar beings_

 

“Something’s wrong with the sun.” Harry squints up at the offending object with open disdain. Or he would have – if it were visible behind the ominous black clouds. “It’s supposed to be summer.”

Beside him Liam snorts and rolls over. They’re lying side by side on the beachfront; Harry determinedly sporting his trunks and nothing else while Liam shivers beside him in his t-shirt and jeans. The beach is cold, and windy, and generally not the weekend retreat that Harry had hoped for.

“It’s Britain Haz, I told you this was a bad idea.”

Harry huffs in defeat. “Maybe it’ll be warm tomorrow?”

“Hmm.”

They both take a minute to gaze out at the empty beach; the sea stretches grey and foam-topped beyond the damp sand. Harry spares a moment to lament his warm clothes, stored safely in their hotel room and nowhere near his actual freezing body. It had been optimistic, this plan of his.

“It’s starting to rain,” Liam points out, as a single, perfect raindrop plops with deadly precision onto Harry’s nose.

Harry nods glumly.

“And that bloke is back.” Liam nods over to the blonde head picking its way across the shoreline. Sure enough, the man is heading their way.

Harry pushes himself heavily up and starts gathering their things, his fingers numb from cold.

“Hi guys!” The man calls cheerfully.

Harry packs faster.

Twice that morning he’s been past, asking all manner of bizarre questions. Were they feeling any strange sensations in their toes? Did they feel like the sun was brighter or dimmer than average? Had they smelled ozone in the last few days? Or pineapple? Did they notice any unusual currents in the water? Had their perihelion changed over the past few weeks?

Harry, having no idea what a perihelion was and in desperate need of some entertainment on the cold, grey stretch of deserted beach, had remarked that his nipples were tingling. Which they had been.

He regrets that now.

“How are the nipples?” The man calls over in a cheerful brogue that was mostly Irish with the occasional trip across the Atlantic.

“Back to normal,” Harry replies. His towel is the last thing to stuff in his bag and he does it hastily, flushed with success when he’s finally ready to escape. He’s feeling warmer already.

He glances towards Liam, who is slowly and methodically packing away his things.

He could just leave him.

It would be his own fault.

Liam looks back at him pleadingly and Harry sighs and drops his bag as the blonde man finally reaches them. His tatty sandals are open toed and the digits themselves are almost purple from the cold water he’s been wading through. He’s wearing blue Hawaiian-style board shorts, which wouldn’t seem that unusual if they weren’t paired with a navy blue polo-neck and a tight brown blazer that proudly boasts _St. Helen’s Catholic Academy for Young Ladies_.  

“Listen.” The man rocks back on his heels and winks conspiratorially. “You chaps seem like you know what’s going on and I need some assistance.”

Liam finishes his packing in a sudden panicked flurry and leaps to his feet.

“Oh, right,” Harry says, now cold enough that politeness is no longer a consideration. “Only, the thing is, we’re not, err, very good at assisting? We actually don’t know anything… Uh, about anything,” he finishes lamely.

“Nope.” Liam shakes his head in desperate solidarity. “We don’t know. There’s no knowing the knowledge that we er—don’t know. Like. I don’t know why the sky is blue, and I don’t know why it’s been so bloody cold recently, and I don’t know why Harry has three nipples and why it smells of pineapples right now or why that rock pool is sparkling like that.”

The three of them turn to the strangely shimmering pool, diverted from Liam’s panicked babbling. The pool sparkles back.

“Actually that’s really quite strange,” Liam comments.

“Well spotted!” The man grins broadly and slaps him on the back. “I knew you were the people to ask.”

The pool sparkles a little harder and Harry and Liam take a nervous step away.

“That’s really beautiful.” The blonde nods, frowning as he notices the two men attempting to make their escape. “Don’t run away now lads, we’re just getting to the good bit.”

The smell of pineapple strengthens, overlaid by a sort of musty-rain smell that Harry is beginning to suspect is what the man meant when he said _ozone._ Harry shivers _._ It smells like a storm. A pineapple storm. It smells like trouble.

The man backs away as the sparkles turn into a shimmer. For a moment Harry considers making a run for it, but damn Liam, the bloody traitor is actually moving closer.

The man reaches out to stop him. “Wouldn’t do that mate. You can get a nasty burn from it. Anyway, looks like something’s coming through.”

Harry squints at the pool. Now that he’s looking for it maybe he can see something. He takes a step closer, stopping just behind Liam. There’s something forming. Something with two arms and two legs and a decidedly bipedal stance.

The pineapple smell reaches eye-watering levels as the rain begins falling in earnest, and as Harry glances around at the calm beach it becomes clear that they have formed the centre of their very own private tropical storm.

The sparkle/shimmer morphs into a flicker, and the flicker becomes a solid light and then the light is getting brighter and brighter and the figure is breaking through, casting a shadow with a white-light halo-

And then the pineapple smell abruptly cuts off and there’s a sudden, bone-crunching thud that Harry feels through his _teeth_ , and the figure is stumbling forwards and he’s got very blue eyes and very floppy brown hair and he’s _very_ naked.

“Well,” the blue-eyed man says as he falls to his knees. “That was unexpected.”

*

Harry isn’t exactly sure of how they’d gotten away with it as they’d snuck the naked and unconscious man (artfully bundled in Liam’s towel) carefully down the high street. But providence had been kind, and they’re now safely ensconced in the little twin room he and Liam have been sharing at a bed and breakfast in town.

The excitable blonde has come with them and is currently investigating the furniture; they’ve pulled the curtains shut at his request, and the early evening light is filtering weakly beneath them, assisted only by a single, dim light bulb.

Their unconscious guest is stretched out on the bed. Liam had insisted on dressing him and had somehow managed to heroically wrestle his uncooperative legs into a pair of Harry’s jogging bottoms.

Harry had insisted on tucking him in.

He stares down at the man curiously; the flower-patterned quilt is startlingly pink against his pale face, and he’s a little worried about his health, but the blonde seems to think that with a few hours rest he’ll revive. Harry supposes that there’s already a bit of colour returning to his cheeks so he’ll give the stranger the benefit of the doubt.

He goes to join Liam, who’s perched on the other small bed.

“So what should we call you?” Liam says suddenly, turning to the blonde man.

“My name?” The man startles, turning hurriedly away from his investigations into the dressing table and looks around a little desperately. His eyes fall on the open door to the _en suite_ bathroom. “Er, my name is _water_.”

“Water?” Liam says.

“I didn’t think water was a name,” Harry comments absentmindedly, entirely unsurprised by this new development. _Of course he doesn’t have a name._  

“It isn’t?” The blonde says.

Harry shakes his head, still staring at the man on the bed. Well he assumes he’s a man. He did come through some sort of sparkly portal though.

“Umm… Sea?” The man tries.

“I don’t think so,” Liam says.

“River?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

The man scrunches up his face for a moment. “No, not River. I don’t like that. Maybe, _a river?_ ”

“Your name is ‘A. River’?” Harry says.

A. River looks at Liam. Liam shakes his head.

“Er, no. My name is the name of a river.”

“Which river?” Harry asks. The blonde seems harmless enough, but then what kind of person won’t give their real name? Criminals? Witnesses? Famous people? Crazy people? _Criminal or crazy._ Harry decides. _Or maybe both._

“The—Severn?”

The Severn stares at Liam. Liam shakes his head.

“The Amazon?”

“Definitely not.”

“Er. The Nile?”

Liam scrunches up his face. “That’s a name I think. Without the ‘The.’ It’s Irish, like your accent.”

“My accent’s Irish?” Nile without the ‘The’ asks.

“Mostly,” Harry says, frowning. The man’s not exactly hiding the fact that he’s giving a fake name though, so probably he’s less criminal and more crazy. Or you know, the _other option_.

“That’s it then. That’s my name. My name’s Nile. N. I. L. E. Nile.”

“I think the name’s spelled N. I. A. L. L. The Irish one.”

“That’s what I said.” Niall nods. “N. I. A. L. L. Niall.”

“Right then.” Harry nods. “Not from around here are you?”

“Not really,” Niall admits.

“Are you from the same place as him?” Harry asks, because that was obviously the _other option_ and probably there’s no point in tiptoeing around it any longer.

“No, somewhere else,” Niall says.

He plops down beside them on the bed and they sit in resigned silence a bit longer, staring at the unconscious man. He shifts slightly and the collective hold their breath, but he doesn’t wake. It could have been worse, Harry supposes, they could have been hanging out with a man named _en suite._

“So that man came out of a puddle,” Harry says finally, when the weight of things unknown has taken him to his breaking point and the patter of rain on the window is drilling into his head.

“Not a puddle,” Niall says.

“A rock pool,” Liam helpfully contributes.

“No. A wormhole,” Niall says. “But ‘portal’ is probably easiest.”

“A portal. Well I suppose that makes more sense.” Harry nods. “Looked a lot like a rock pool though.”

The man on the bed shifts. He looks to be in his early twenties, same age as Harry and Liam maybe, same age as Niall.

The group waits.

“So what are you?” Liam asks, when it becomes clear that the man isn’t about to get up. “Are you a time traveller? Or like, an alien? Or are you from some parallel dimension where they don’t have names?”

They sit and stare some more and Harry shivers. He’s managed to pull on some jeans and a jumper but the cold seems to have soaked into his bones and there are long strands of brown hair hanging wetly across his forehead.

“No,” Niall says finally. “None of those things. Or well, I suppose alien might come close, but I’m not really that either. You’d probably call _him_ an alien though.”

Niall nods over at the bed to where the pair of decidedly _open_ eyes blink sleepily up at them.

“Shit!” Harry leaps off the bed, Liam following quickly behind. “He’s awake!”

The alien frowns and looks behind him, whereby he seems to discern that _he_ is the thing that must have caused alarm. He pulls a face.

“Well that’s nice,” He says, with a sarcastic edge that could cut glass. “Really, really warm welcome there, thanks lads.”

“You… speak English?” Liam says faintly.

Harry would point out that _of course_ the man spoke English as this was the second time they’d heard the pleasantly lilting voice, but he doesn’t, because the man’s an _alien_ , and quite frankly Harry would also like the answer to how he - _it? -_ can speak English.

“I just speak _me_ mate.” The alien shrugs.

“He’s from the Promeus sector,” Niall says, finally jumping up from the bed. “It’s in another region of the universe entirely. Life happened a bit differently there, they don’t have solid form like you lot. They exist as a sort of charged energy space.”

“But I can see him,” Liam points out.

“Well yeah.” Niall grins. “Humans have solid mass so he had to take a form.”

“And he chose that one?”

“Hey!” The man on the bed frowns.

“No actually.” Niall grins wider. “ _We_ chose it.”

“I don’t follow.” Harry’s head hurts.

“His species responds to others with a sort of-- familiarity field? It’s really not easy to explain to beings of mass. Basically he became the sum of what we all expected to see.”

“Then why isn’t he a little green martian?” Liam asks.

“Eugh,” Niall shakes his head. “No, not what you wanted to see at that moment. More like what you expected him to be, I suppose it’s more like if you imagined an ideal human male specimen, this is what you get.”

“So you’re saying,” Harry draws out slowly, “that he’s our combined perfect man?”

“Exactly!” Niall grins.

The collective’s perfect man slides slowly out of the bed and pushes himself carefully to his feet. He manages a single wobbly step before stumbling inelegantly into the wall.

“Are you sure?” Harry says.

“Well he’s a bit new to this whole having mass thing.” Niall rushes over and helps the man back to his feet.

“Exactly,” The man says. “This body doesn’t want to balance properly, there’s something heavy going on at the back.”

The four of them crane their heads to look at what is admittedly quite an ample bottom. Harry feels the blush bloom over his cheeks, down his neck and end somewhere around his groin.

“Wasn’t me,” Liam says.

“Me neither,” Niall points out.

The three of them stand in embarrassed silence.

“Right,” The alien says finally, tilting his head to get an eyeful of Niall’s behind, presumably for comparison, and then turning to nod at Harry. “Well thanks for the extra weight. I’m assuming this is a good thing?”

Harry nods numbly for a second before reaching around desperately for something to say. _Anything._ “How do you know so much English?” He blurts finally.

“I told ya mate, familiarity field.” Niall shrugs.

“Umm,” Harry says.

“It’s like, he’s not really talking.”

“Sounds like he’s talking,” Liam points out. “Noises are coming out of his mouth.”

The alien places a finger carefully on his lip and blows gently. “Something’s definitely going on,” he nods in agreement, poking at his throat. “I’m vibrating and everything.”

“Yeah, well, it’s the whole energy to matter thing again isn’t it,” Niall says. “He’s projecting what he wants you to know and your brains fix it so that he speaks what you expect him to speak.”

“But his lips are moving.” Harry frowns. “They’re making words, the _right_ words.”

“Because he’s speaking.”

“But you just said- How is he speaking if he doesn't know the words?”

“Well sometimes the effect comes before the cause,” Niall shrugs. “It’s quantum.”

“My head _really_ hurts,” Liam says miserably.

Niall nods. They stand in silence as the man tries another step, flails his arms wildly, and then dejectedly flops back down to sit on the bed.

“You have nice eyes,” Liam says kindly, apparently having had enough of energy and matter for the evening.

“Mine.” Harry nods, holding up his hand. At least he doesn’t need to be embarrassed about that.

The alien frowns, “eyes?”

Harry points to his own eye and the alien nods gratefully. Harry supposes it makes sense that a being with no mass wouldn’t be so good at human anatomy, familiarity field or not.  

“Shorter than I would expect.” Liam points out.

Harry nods. The alien frowns.

“Oh, that’ll be my doing.” Niall shrugs. “Humans all seem so small to me.”

“You’re not that much taller yourself,” Harry points out.

“Well not like this I’m not.” Niall holds his arm out and spins, and Harry’s brain briefly considers the fact that Niall somehow _chose_ this body as some sort of temporary transport, but he leaves the thought alone when his head starts to tingle unpleasantly.

“Those cheekbones must have been you Liam,” Harry says faintly, pointing at his own again for the sake of their guest. The alien nods and mirrors him, poking at his face a few times.

Liam smiles proudly. “I did the hair too I think, sort of. Usually I’d go darker.”

“I was thinking blonde,” Niall says. “I suppose he ended up halfway.”

“So we really did-- _design_ him,” Says Harry, watching the man tug gently at his artfully tousled straight brown hair.

Niall nods.

“Our perfect man,” Liam mutters.

There’s a long pause as one-by-one three heads turn to stare thoughtfully at a now-covered groin. Harry suddenly wishes he’d been paying more attention when they dragged the man into his trousers.

“What are we looking at?” The alien asks curiously, staring down at his own fabric covered crotch.

“Right.” Liam clears his throat loudly. “And his voice?”

“My voice?” The alien asks, still staring at this trousers in confusion.

“Accent,” Liam clarifies, “er- the way the sounds sound coming out of your mouth.”

“Mouth,” the alien pokes his lip again and then nods hesitantly.

“You sound Northern-ish,” Harry points out. “Like you’re from somewhere north of here?”

“I was going for Scottish.” Liam shrugs unashamedly. “I like Scottish.”

“Welsh.” Niall raises his hand.

Liam and Harry stare at him for a few moments.

“Really?” Harry says.

Niall nods. “Well what were you going for then?”

“Oh.” Harry can feel that blush creeping up again. “Dutch,” He mutters.

“Right.”

Harry shrugs off Liam’s quiet snickers. “I like the accent!”

“Well you’re somewhere between all of em I think mate.” Niall says finally, nodding to the alien. “I mean, draw a triangle between Wales, Scotland and Holland and you get what?”

“Middle of the north sea?” Harry guesses.

“Yeah, well. That doesn’t have an accent,” Niall protests. “So you got this one.”

“He sounds like he's from _Doncaster,_ ” Harry says sadly as Liam quietly snickers.

“Hey!” The alien protests. “Nothing wrong with my accent mate, stop taking the piss!”

They turn to stare at him. “Actually it quite suits you,” Liam says. Harry nods in agreement.

“Well great,” The alien continues. “Now that we’ve got that sorted, how about someone explains to me what’s going on?”

*

Unfortunately, or perhaps _fortunately -_ Harry still isn’t sure how he feels about things yet - Neither Niall nor the new man seem to be able to explain much of _anything_.

Niall for one keeps babbling something about mysterious energy fluctuations and the instability of the sun and more wormholes, and he’s pinched Harry’s phone, for reasons he doesn’t really want to know about. The alien on the other hand just keeps asking questions about how his body works and what it’s all called.

“So I can use my hands to grab things?” He says, taking hold of Harry’s face.

“Yes,” Harry says slowly. “But you should be careful about what you grab.”

“Oh.” The man drops his hands.

They’d given him Liam’s hoodie after his unnervingly perfect chest had distracted them once too often, and Harry has a disturbing suspicion that the dusting of artful stubble will stay on the man’s chin regardless of whether he shaves or not.

Harry runs a hand self consciously through his hair - it’s currently halfway between long and short which is resulting in uncontrollable curly tufts poking out at odd angles. And the rain hasn’t helped it any. He drops his hand in defeat.

The perfect man resumes his exploration, this time deciding to grab his own body.

“Oh this bit changes when I touch it!” The man remarks, jerking his hand. “Wow, that feels weird.“

“Don’t do that.” Harry pulls the man’s hand out of his jogging bottoms as casually as he can, ignoring the heat that’s once again rushing over his cheeks and Liam’s desperate giggles. “Not in public. In fact, no hands under the clothes. At all.”

“Oh.” The man frowns. “Sorry.”

Niall is busy tapping away on Harry’s phone as Harry and Liam stare at the now sulking alien. “Look, we’re going to need something to call you,” Harry says finally, because it’s probably the least of their issues but at least it’s one that they can _solve._

“I’m named after a river,” Niall says absentmindedly.

“Ok,” The alien says. “Can I have a river too?”

“No,” Harry says firmly. “Two rivers would just be weird.”

“What about an ocean?” Niall suggests.

“No that would be weird too.”

“A desert?”

“How about a city?” Liam jumps in.

Harry nods in relief.

“Or what about that? I like that.” The alien nods towards a slightly out of place photograph hanging lopsidedly on the wall. It’s a dark city skyline with a white archway in pride of place.

“St. Louis,” Harry says, deciding to go with Liam’s city idea rather than risk Niall naming their new companion ‘photograph’. “The owner went there once apparently. She told us all about it.”

“Thoroughly,” Liam says.

Harry shivers at the memory.

“That’s me then.” The man nods happily. “My name is Saint Louis. Nice to meet you.”

“I don’t think you’re allowed to be a saint,” Niall chips in helpfully. “It’s more of a title than a name, I think you have to get elected, or do some sort of a miracle.”

“I came through a portal.” Saint Louis frowns. “Or is that normal here?”

“Definitely not normal.” Liam shakes his head. “But Niall’s right, you can’t just be a saint. You can be ‘Louis’ though. Louis is nice. Or like, Lou-ee.”

“Louis,” Louis tries out, rolling the word around his mouth. “Louis, Lewis, Lou-ee. I think I like the last one.”

Liam and Harry nod. There’s  a minute of only-slightly-awkward silence that Harry’s actually starting to get used to, while Niall taps away at Harry’s phone and Louis restarts his exploration of the human body.

“I said over the clothes only,” Harry points out in a slightly strangled voice.

“You said in public. We’re friends now so it’s fine.” Louis winks, and Harry has a sudden suspicion that he knows _exactly_ what he’s doing.

“Found one!” Niall says suddenly, and Louis’ hand snaps sharply out from under his jumper.

“Umm, found what?” Harry asks.

“Another wormhole! Come on, we have to go!”

Later, Harry will realise that this was the moment when the decision was made. This was the moment that the universe fixed his path onto the ludicrous trajectory his life was about to follow. He’ll realise that following Niall was the worst possible decision he could have made for his own health and sanity.

He’ll also realise that if they hadn’t, the world might actually have ended.


	2. Boat is boat

 

_ There’s one with no form _

_ And one with a horn _

_ And one that’s a bit like a bee _

 

“We’re going to Greece,” Harry says dumbly. 

Niall’s driving much too far above the speed limit and Louis the alien is cackling gleefully beside him. In the back with Harry; Liam is looking like he might lose his breakfast. The four of them had decided to cram into the hotel room for the night and Niall had helpfully explained everything he thought Louis needed to know about humans, and then after some fairly mortifying confusion, everything he might want to know about the human body. Louis seemed to find the whole thing far too amusing, but then, he hadn’t grown up with a body, so why should he be embarrassed by it? 

He’s also been introduced to food, which had been an interesting and slightly terrifying experience. Harry knows he’ll never look at spaghetti the same way.

“We can’t just go to Greece,” Liam moans. Harry nods in silent agreement.

“Why not?” Niall says.

“Because we haven’t packed! We don’t have our passports!”

“Of course you have.”

Niall reaches into his blazer and draws out four impossible passports. Harry looks at his; there’s a slight crease in the middle where he’d leaned on it, and the right hand corner has a distinctive scratch.

“This is my passport!” Liam accuses.

“Wasn’t that the point?” Niall replies.

“But--” Liam splutters.

Harry decides to set that question aside for now and carefully pulls open the third - it’s older than it should be. Inside, the pages are crammed with stamps and the edges are almost ragged. On the name page it says ‘ _ Horan, Niall’.  _ The nationality is Irish and place of birth is listed as ‘ _ Mullingar.’ _

“What?” Harry mutters. 

Liam snatches it from him and looks it over. “It says Niall Horan!” He accuses.

“That’s me!” Niall chirps back.

“But-- we just made your name!” Liam says.

“Yup!”

“But this is old?”

“Well yeah, but the name isn’t.”

Liam sags in his seat belt, dropping his head into his hands.

“Best not to think about it,” Niall says.

Niall turns sharply, leaving an angry car horn echoing in his wake. Harry stares down at his hands.

“This one is new though?” Harry says, cracking open the fourth and final passport that can only be Louis’.

“Well yeah,” Niall replies. “So is he.”

There’s silence for a while as the yellow mini chugs smoothly along. It’s not Harry’s car. It’s not Liam’s either. And now Harry has a sinking suspicion that it might not actually be Niall’s.

“You put his birthplace as  _ Doncaster, _ ” Harry says finally.

“Hey! Don’t mock the birthplace, curly.” Louis snips.

“But-- but you weren’t even--” 

Harry decides to stop talking.

“Exactly,” Louis says smugly.

*

The airport trip is a mess: Louis is still wobbly on his legs and has a tendency to unrepentantly grab anyone in his vicinity if it looks like he’s falling. On top of that, they somehow have tickets with EasyJet to some tiny island called Skiathos. Harry is now seriously worried about where all this stuff is coming from. He also has a suspicion that prison would not be kind to him.

Niall marches them gleefully through the airport, only stopping for Harry to yank a decorative box of tea out of Louis’ grabby fingers and apologise to the incensed security. 

“I wanted that.” Louis pouts.

“You have to pay for it,” Harry says.

“What’s that?”

“You have to exchange something for it. Something of equal worth.”

“Like this?” Louis moves to remove his shirt.

“No!” Liam and Harry chorus.

“Well what then?” Louis grumbles.

“Money. It’s paper, or-- I don’t know, cotton or something, and coins. Metal,” Harry says.

“Metal,” Louis says doubtfully.

“It’s a Fiat Exchange,” Niall says, and somehow that does the job.

Louis and Niall exchange a quick, whispered conversation as Harry puts the tea back, and Louis is all smiles when they finally separate.

“So, money then.” Louis nods.

“You don’t have money where you’re from?” Harry ushers them quickly away from the Harrods that Louis had attempted to burgle. Liam and Niall fall in behind them, chatting quietly. 

Well Niall’s chatting - Harry has known Liam long enough to suspect that he’s still puzzling over the passport debacle and isn’t listening to a single word.

“We have payment,” Louis says enigmatically.

“But no coins?”

“No mass.” Louis shrugs. “But things have worth; energies and stuff, and the value is set by whoever is in charge. So yeah, Fiat Money.”

They walk in silence towards their gate, and Harry has so many possible questions that he could be asking this man, this  _ alien,  _ that he doesn’t know where to start. How does life even work with no mass? What does that even really mean? How-- Just  _ how???  _ He glances over at Louis’ perfect jaw and slowly improving gait. What was it like on his own planet? What was  _ he  _ like? Was he always this cheerful? This playful? Did he have a family? Did he miss them?

Something tightens in Harry’s stomach. Here was a being who’d been sucked into another world without any warning, into a completely different _form of existence._ Louis hadn’t even been able to keep his _name._ And now he was stuck with only Harry, Liam and Niall in all the world who knew where he came from, and with no obvious way back and no contact with the planet he’d left.

“You’re taking this all extremely well,” Harry says finally.

Louis is silent a moment before he nods. “Well yeah.” And then there’s an instant where his face seems to fall, just some small crack for just a fraction of a second; a sudden flash of a scared, lost, individual-- 

And then it’s gone, and Louis is back to grinning. “It is what it is.” Louis shrugs.  

*

The flight is… difficult.

Louis doesn’t understand what’s happening when his ears pop, and he starts jabbering excitedly about energy projection fields. The flight attendants have to tell him multiple times to stop causing a fuss, and they’re threatening to physically restrain him when Niall solves the issue by gently explaining the physics of matter and pressure to him. 

Harry almost wishes he hadn’t when he sees Louis’ face fall and he’s reminded of how desperately lonely the man must be.

Still, it has the double effect of also calming down Niall, who was starting to look a little green. 

“You can’t be afraid of flying, you’ve been everywhere,” Liam says, pointing to the ratty passport hanging out of the man’s pocket. He’s been flicking through it earlier, admiring all the stamps.  

“This body hasn’t,” Niall replies, effectively shutting down all further communication. 

The landing is easier, though Niall looks ready to faint when he glances through the window. “We’re landing on water,” He moans.

“Huh.” Harry looks out the window curiously. “Oh, no, wait, it’s ok. There’s a runway it just starts on the beach.”

“Oh Bob,” Niall whispers.

“I don’t think my cat can save you,” Harry says with a grin, thinking fondly of his fluffy bundle of razor blades and bad attitude back home.

“What?”

“You said  _ oh Bob  _ instead of-- Oh nevermind.”

The wheels hit tarmac with a screech and when the plane finally stops it’s accompanied by a round of applause and Harry feels his spirits finally lift. He’s in  _ Greece.  _ And it’s  _ sunny _ . And he hasn’t had to pay for any of it. 

Assuming that Niall has been acquiring things in at least a semi-legal manner, things are actually looking up. There’s a deliciously warm wash of air when they finally leave the plane and they’re in the midst of a cloud of giggly tourists. The sky is blue, the cicadas are humming. 

Harry’s confused when Niall leads them to the luggage carousel, but he accepts it with weary resignation when his very own, has-the-tape-that-he-put-on-it suitcase that he most certainly did not pack or check in arrives first. Liam’s comes next, and then Niall scoops up a brand new pink Hawaiian-print case that can only be meant for Louis, and finally an overstuffed British army rucksack that he swings onto his own back easily. 

“This is my suitcase,” Liam says weakly.

Niall nods.

“Mine’s a bit bright?” Louis pokes his suitcase with a toe, but he dutifully copies Harry, lifting the handle to wheel it along.

They dodge the gaggle of holiday reps and take a taxi to the harbour, and the driver lets Louis roll the window down and poke his head out like a dog. His expression is serene as the warm air whips past.

When they arrive, Louis hands the driver a wad of euros and refuses to take any change from what must be a small fortune. “Equal worth,” He says with a shrug, even though he can’t possibly know the practical value of the notes.

“Where did you get all that?” Harry asks suspiciously.

“From Niall.”

“And where did  _ you  _ get that?” Harry asks Niall with mounting panic.

Niall shrugs and pulls out Harry’s phone from his pocket. Harry decides not to mention the fact that he  _ knows  _ that phone had been in his own bag only a few seconds ago and that he doesn’t have roaming enabled. 

Niall taps happily away. “Right. We’d better take a boat.”

“We aren’t staying here?” Liam asks.

“Apparently not.” Niall shrugs. “My readings are suggesting somewhere near here though. I think we’d better take a boat.”

They stand silently for a few moments, Harry finally giving up the notion that Niall is going to be any more helpful than that. There’s a tiny hill jutting out into the crystal blue water with a little monastery on it, and Harry toys with the idea of joining the small but seamless stream of tourists pottering up, around and then back down. Besides, there’s a shady looking tree up there and Harry can feel his parting burning. His nose too if he’s not careful. 

Beside him, their alien friend is fidgeting distractingly. “I don’t mean to alarm anyone,” Louis says slowly. “But my body is leaking.”

Liam, Niall and Harry all turn eyes to stare at Louis’ forehead, mouth, and groin, respectively. Harry tugs his eyes up hurriedly, his cheeks flaming. 

“Here.” Louis points to his chest and armpits with a much-too-self-satisfied grin. 

“You’re sweating,” Niall says with a nod. “Proves you aren’t a dog.”

Harry lets his plans of visiting the hill go as they shuffle out of the sun and join a small batch of tourists in a long shelter. It’s cooler there at least, and after a few moments of sweaty patience, a large blue and white ferry rounds the corner suddenly and pulls up to the quay.

“Good timing!” Liam says cheerfully.

Harry looks at Niall’s smug smile and suspects that it was not in fact, simply  _ good timing _ . “You aren’t an alien?” Harry whispers, when the loud honk of the ferry sounds, blocking out inquisitive ears.

“Nope.” Niall’s grin is like a shark.

“Then-- what  _ are  _ you?” Harry asks. 

Niall shrugs as a small chaffinch darts down and perches happily on his shoulder. “Something else.”

*

The last leg of the journey is uneventful and Harry is grateful. Not that he would wish sea sickness on anyone, but having a pale nauseated Louis to look after is much easier than a hectic, curious one. Harry had had visions of the alien staggering around on his already shaky legs and tumbling overboard.

He’s also feeling a little bit shaky himself, as evidence continues to mount that Niall is considerably more than he seems. Harry had gone outside at one point for some air and had been rewarded by the picture of Niall hanging over the side of the boat in full view and seemingly  _ talking  _ to a porpoise. And even worse -  _ the porpoise had been talking back.  _ Well, it had been making some strange whistling pops that Harry assumes might class as speech to a sea-mammal. 

He files it away with all the other alarming pieces of evidence. 

Collecting their passports had been one thing - Niall could conceivably have snuck out and gathered them during the night, and perhaps Louis’ arrival had been some sort of trick and this was all just an ill-advised non-consensual reality show? But the suitcases? The ferry? The  _ bird--  _ landing on him like he was some sort of Disney heroine??

Harry takes a low, centering breath and decides not to think about it. He’s on holiday. It’s warm, it’s beautiful. He can wear  _ shorts. _

Eventually Niall comes back inside, trailed by an awe-struck Liam and a suitably excited group of tourists who keep referring to Niall as  _ the dolphin whisperer. _ The locals seem to be side-eyeing him, as if expecting some sort of trick. Probably at their expense. Harry can’t really blame them.

“Welcome to Skopelos!” Niall says happily, and Harry peers curiously out the window to gaze at the heavily forested island that they seem to have stopped at. “Time to get to work!”

Bags are collected hurriedly - and clumsily in Louis’ case - and the tide of people carries them down the gangplank. They’ve arrived to a bustling tarmac carpark at one end of what looks to be a long paralia lined with Tavernas. There’s a slightly dirty looking beach off to the other side, and as they wait the crowds slowly trickle away and the  _ Express Skiathos  _ ferry departs.

Liam, Harry and Louis stand curiously, sweating in the early afternoon sun as Niall talks in what appears to be fluent Greek on Harry’s phone. 

“Yannis should be here in just a second-- Oh there he is!”

Sure enough, a battered red truck swings haphazardly into the carpark and stops with the engine running, hazard lights blinking merrily as Niall points. 

“Yannis is going to take our luggage so we can get started.” Niall nods.

The man who swings himself out of the cab is short and squat with light brown skin and thick, thick dark hair. He nods cheerfully. “Hello! Yassas! Welcome to Skopelos! Magnus, welcome back. It’s been many years eh? You look just the same!”

Niall grins. “And you too mate. I like the moustache, it suits ye. How’s Maria?”

“She’s well. We will have a child very soon I think, very soon.”

Niall nods delightedly as Yannis efficiently loads the luggage into the flatbed and quickly jumps back up into the driver seat. It’s all done with very little fuss and a speed that leaves Harry wondering if maybe they’d never had any suitcases to begin with and perhaps the sun was finally getting to him.

“Magnus?” Liam asks.

“That was my name last time I was here,” Niall says.

“I think I need a hat,” He says weakly, once the possibly-not-real-truck is out of sight. 

“I think you’re right,” Niall says, reaching into his blazer. 

For one terrified moment Harry thinks he’s about to pull out his very own hat collection like some sort of fedora wielding magician, but it’s a large leather wallet that he holds in his hand. Harry apprehensively accepts the euros he’s offered. 

They potter out of the carpark and across the road, shuffling under the shelter of the large umbrella awnings that cover the taverna chairs. Tourist shops are conveniently placed either side of the run of open-air restaurants and Harry makes a beeline for the nearest stack of hats as Niall disappears.

“Huh,” Louis says, watching Harry carefully and then pulling a hat off the rack himself when Harry does the same. 

“Look what I found!” Liam bounces up wearing a vapid green visor. 

“I have no hope for you.” Harry shakes his head sadly and turns to Louis. “You on the other hand, are brand new. So maybe we can do something.”

He pulls out a flowered floppy bucket hat and a beige straw boater.

“Which one?” He holds them up to Louis. 

Louis frowns at them for a moment and then breaks into a smug grin. “It’s a trick question. Neither.”

Harry gives his best offended look as he positions the boater on his head. “Incorrect. The answer was in fact; both.”

Liam snorts loudly. “Perfect answer if you ask me Louis. Put those down Haz.”

“Well that’s why no one asks you things Leeeyum. How about you try to be supportive for a change?” Harry drawls, swapping the boater for a floppy sailor hat. “Perfect. What do you think Louis?”

Louis grins at the hat. “You’re certainly noticeable.”

Harry pouts. 

“You’ll stop traffic Haz,” Liam says.

“Oy!” Louis pokes Liam in the arm. “Be nice.”

Liam splutters and Harry beams as Louis rifles through the hats.

“I think this one,” Louis says finally, pulling a plain navy blue cap over his artfully sweaty forehead. “What do you think?”

Harry’s mouth goes dry.

“I think you look like a model human,” Niall chimes in suddenly, popping up behind them and making Liam yelp embarrassingly. “You two on the other hand...” He looks disapprovingly at Harry’s sailor hat and Liam’s visor. 

Harry’s about to defend his honor on behalf of humanity when he notices Niall’s outfit. “You’ve changed!” He exclaims. 

Gone is the jacket and polo-neck combination, leaving Niall in a casual white t-shirt and light-blue overshirt and blue board shorts. He looks-- normal, almost.

“I try to blend in.” Niall nods sagely. “You should maybe do the same.”

*

They buy some simple shirts and shorts from another tourist shop and then duck into a taverna bathroom to change. Harry sighs in relief as he peels off his sweaty jeans and hands them over to Niall who has somehow acquired a small hiking rucksack. 

Actually, now that Harry’s looking at it, isn’t that  _ his  _ rucksack? But, he’d seen it go on the truck with Yannis, he knows he did-- 

He decides to add it to the list of things he doesn’t think about.

*

“Off we go then,” Niall says, when they’re finally in comfortable clothing and suitably protected from the sun. 

They’d had to explain sun-cream to Louis, and then they’d had to watch whilst he rubbed it over his arms and legs and neck and jaw and--

Harry hasn’t quite recovered yet.

“One thing I don’t understand,” Harry says to distract himself as they blindly follow Niall like self-destructive ducklings. “Is why you ended up male?”

“Not following.” Louis shakes his head.

“I mean, instead of female. Or I guess, somewhere in between?”

“Still not following.” Louis scrunches up his face. “Males and females?”

“You don’t have genders on your, um, planet?”

“I don’t know, what are they for?” Louis says curiously. 

“Oh. Right. Umm, well on Earth we have males and females. Well mostly. Most likely-- Genetically. Well usually,” Harry tries.

“Oh. Why?” Louis says, and Harry is suddenly flushed with the realization of what he’s done, because he can see this slow motion car wreck happening in Louis’ curious yet mischievous eyes. And he know’s he’s about to attempt to explain the birds and the bees to an alien who's never had a human body before, and he just  _ knows  _ that Louis is going to make it as difficult as possible.

He takes a deep breath. “Ohhkay. Well. There are--”

“Louis stop messing with him,” Niall jumps in suddenly. They’ve stopped at the small slightly dirty beach and Niall seems to be looking searchingly out to sea. Beside them a small group of tanned Italian men are playing volleyball. 

Harry deflates. “You already know about this stuff?”

“We talked it through last night. His species has different forms that can make new life together. It’s less messy and not something you can do for sport, but he knows what sex is. Don’t let him trick ya.”

“Oh.”

Louis grins. “Spoil sport,” He says. “It’s pretty interesting though, what you people do for fun.”

Niall nods in agreement. “And to answer your question Harry, he’s male because we were all expecting male.”

Harry shuffles his feet, a strange type of shame running through him.

Liam jumps forwards. “We were? That’s a bit sexist isn’t it?”

Harry nods.

“Well it made life simpler for Louis,” Niall says. “He could have been halfway.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Harry snaps, still flushed with guilt.

“I just said easier mate, not better. He’s white too, if you want more to feel bad about.”

Harry looks at his shoes.

“Oh,” Says Liam.

They shuffle awkwardly for a few minutes and Harry watches a small wooden rowing boat get steadily closer. It’s captained by a lady with thick dark hair and brown skin. Presently, she waves at the collective, and Niall waves back.

“This here is Liz,” Niall says. “She’s going to lend us her son’s boat for a spot of portal hunting.”

They wait in silence until the boat rows up to them and Liz finally jumps out. Harry has a moment to think that her denim shorts are somehow not what Harry had been expecting with the frilly white shirt on top, and then he feels guilty about that too.

Liz stares at him. And then stares some more. “Magnus!” She finally says, and then a stream of heavily accented Greek. 

Niall responds equally fluently, and then they hug and Liz waves at them and walks quickly away. It’s all a bit strange. 

“Why is everyone here in a hurry?” Liam asks, echoing Harry’s thoughts.

“It’s tourist season mate, there’s lots to do. And to be honest I think they find me a bit unsettling.”

“You don’t say.” Harry watches as Liz glances quickly back as she rounds the corner and disappears.

Niall shrugs. “Last time I was here was 10 years ago. I kept the same form so at least they recognise me but I forgot to age it.”

Something heavy lodges in Harry’s throat. 

“You kept the same form,” Liam says slowly.

“I think the voice has changed though. Too much irish TV maybe.”

“Too much TV,” Liam echoes.

“Yer looking a bit green there you two, is it gonna be a problem?”

Harry shakes his head numbly, determined not to add another prejudice to the list. It’s just that-- this isn’t something that Harry knows how to get his head around. It’s making his whole body feel sort of tingly, and he can’t help but feel like this is something that human beings aren’t  _ supposed  _ to experience. They aren’t supposed to know because their minds clearly don’t know how to deal with it.

Well Harry’s doesn’t. 

He feels sort of floaty. And tingly. Floaty tingles. But with a heavy sort of sick feeling of dread. It’s a bit like standing up too fast and then keeping on going. Or being really, really drunk. Some time during freshers week he’d necked a pint of vodka and accidentally eaten some magic mushrooms. It feels a bit like that.

“I don’t usually talk to people about this sort of thing but I figured you’d already seen Louis here--” Niall trailed off. 

Liam’s got his head between his knees and Harry’s glad that it’s both hitting them at the same time because he doesn’t feel quite as stupid.

“It’s not bothering him though,” Niall says, pointing to Louis.

The sudden irritation pushes the panic back. “He’s an alien. It’s probably normal for him.”

“Harry my friend. I can assure you that nothing that has happened to me since I got here has been normal,” Louis says.

Harry stares at his perfect blue eyes and his perfectly artful stubble and the perfect tuft of hair beneath his blue cap and feels sorry for him all over again. Louis might be their perfect physical specimen but that doesn’t exactly mean anything to the man--  _ alien _ . And he’s still wholly, desperately, alone.

“You haven’t seen aliens before?” Harry asks. “Like, aliens to your planet? Aliens like we must be to you?”

Louis shakes his head. “Nothing but our planet. We don’t have the energy currents set up yet for inter dimensional travel, and space must be even harder.” He shrugs. “Or something, I’m not a scientist.”

“You have scientists on your planet?” Liam asks.

Louis stares at him until he starts to look uncomfortable. “Yes Liam. We have scientists. We have teachers too, and doctors.”

“But, you don’t have a body,” Liam presses, refusing to be intimidated. 

“We don’t have  _ mass  _ Liam. We still have bodies and they can go wrong just like I assume they do here.”

He squints at Liam’s body with the look of someone expecting the bits to start falling off.

“It’s an energy thing,” Niall jumps in. “It’s a body of energy, a charged space, currents can get unbalanced and things. Shall we get going then?”

Harry stares at him for a few moments. There’s a weak sort of prickly feeling in his stomach and he just knows there’s something unsettling here, something that he’s missed, something that he’s forgotten maybe--

Weren’t they talking about something else? Hadn’t Niall said something? He’s missing something. Something important. Liam looks far too pale for this heat. Harry scrunches up his nose. He can’t quite remember. Something about-- 

“So this boat is like the other one but smaller then?” Louis asks, breaking his train of thought.  “Will this make my stomach do the thing it did before?”

Harry shakes his head. It probably doesn’t matter.

*

They don’t need to go far, as it turns out. In fact, Louis’ stomach finds the portal after just a few minutes of rowing. Only this time, it’s not seasickness that’s troubling the alien.

“Was that you?” Liam asks, after a particularly loud stomach grumble echoes above the call of the sea gulls.

“I think I need more of that food we had this morning,” Louis says. “How often do we have to do that?”

“About three times a day,” Liam says knowledgeably.

“That’s a lot of time to spend nourishing yourself.”

Liam shrugs. 

The boat’s rocking gently, sheltered from the waves by the harbour wall. It would be pretty pleasant, only now that Louis has mentioned it, Harry’s also pretty hungry. They’d had a painfully early breakfast before their morning flight and judging by the dip of the sun it must be getting into early evening. 

“It would be easier if the water didn’t smell so tasty,” Louis says sadly. “I tasted some though, it’s disgusting. Not like it smells.”

“Water doesn’t smell--” Harry sticks his nose in the air curiously. “Oh! No that’s not water that’s pineapple!”

Niall shuts his eyes and sniffs deeply. “Good nose Louis! Impressive!”

“Well it’s new.” Louis grins.

Liam slaps him on the shoulder happily. “It that it? It looks sort of sparkly down there, but it looks sort of sparkly everywhere?”

“So how does it work then?” Louis asks. “Does one of us come through, look at something and turn into it? Or does it link to another planet?”

“That is an excellent question,” Niall says. “And something we need to find out.”

“Well I’m volunteering,” Liam says, jumping up and stripping efficiently out of his shirt and shoes.

“Don’t be stupid Liam.” Harry says, dragging him back down. “What if you get sucked in?”

“Not going to happen.” Niall says confidently. “That smell there means things are being pushed  _ out.  _ They can only go one way; no danger of being sucked in.”

“Oh. Well off you go then,” Says Harry, and pushes him out of the boat.

Liam hits the water with a surprised yelp and a splash, and then slowly the water settles. 

“Ooh! You can just jump in there then?” Louis asks a snickering Harry as Liam dives elegantly down, apparently too excited to rebuke Harry for his assistance.

“Yup!” Harry says. 

If Harry were thinking properly he might have anticipated what happened next, but unfortunately Louis chose that moment to pull off his own shirt, so thinking wasn’t really an option. 

“I’ll go help!”

Louis kicks off his shoes and socks and turns with a shaky stumble, launching himself out of the other side of the boat. There’s some brief splashing and a confused squark and then a dark shape starts moving down towards the bottom.

Liam takes that moment to pop back up. 

“Was that Louis?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Harry says, frowning at the shape that’s moving jerkily down.

“Can he swim then?” Liam asks curiously, treading water lazily.

“Shouldn’t think so,” Niall says slowly.

Harry spins to face him. “What?”

“Well he doesn’t really know what water is does he? He isn’t used to lungs either. He probably thinks he can breathe it.”

“Shit!” Liam turns himself over and dives down hurriedly as Harry jumps in after them, clothes and all.

The water hits his face in a cold wash and Harry pulls himself strongly down, the sudden shock of adrenaline racing through him, making him fast. He opens his eyes. The sea bottom is rocky and far away, but he can see a dark blur that looks a lot like Liam, and another that’s kicking and twisting in an uncoordinated way.

_ Shit.  _

He dives towards the shape that quickly resolves itself into a wide-eyed, panicking Louis and he makes a grab for him. And another. Only there’s a leg in his face, and then an arm, and Harry makes a few more unsuccessful grabs but Louis won’t stay still.

Harry’s lungs are starting to burn now, and the surface is feeling further and further away, and if Louis doesn’t let him help then Harry might actually start panicking himself.  

He grabs at Louis again and his heart leaps in elation as Louis finally lets him. 

Or rather, Harry realises with dawning horror, as Louis finally falls unconscious.

He tugs harder, desperate to get them to the surface, and now his lungs really are on fire, but the surface is coming closer and closer and finally he’s back in the air and taking huge gulps of it so greedily that his head is spinning. And then Niall is tugging an unconscious Louis out of the water and on the other side of the boat Liam is dragging on board-- 

Someone  _ else. _


	3. Someone new

_ And they sit and wait _

_ Neither early, nor late _

_ For tiny bubbles to grow _

 

Harry hauls himself into the boat as quickly as he can as Niall spins Louis onto his side. Liam does the same with the newcomer and honestly, synchronised CPR was not something Harry thought he would ever experience.

There’s a chorus of thumps and then the new, dark-skinned male is coughing and spluttering and Louis is still unconscious.

A prickly dread starts to creep through Harry’s body, tightening his chest.

_ Wake up. _

Niall bangs harder, and Liam is babbling something about breathing and what he’s seen on Baywatch. Niall ignores him and keeps holding Louis across his lap as he thumps him on the back.

_ Wake up! _

But then Louis is coughing, and coughing, and coughing and Harry doesn’t even think as he drags the man into a crushing hug.

“Har’y,” Louis slurs.

“Shit.” Harry holds the wet alien away from himself for a moment and takes in the glazed, reddened eyes, and pulls him hurriedly back into another hug. “Shit. Oh my god. You’re ok. You’re ok.”

“Harry your shirt is wet,” Louis says weakly.

They sit and breathe for a while before Harry reluctantly lets him go, a relieved laugh slipping out from between his lips. He’s pretty sure that some of the water on his face isn’t from the sea.

“What was that?” Louis asks.

“Water is denser than air,” Niall says helpfully. “You can’t get enough oxygen out of it if you breathe it.”

“No, not that _._ _That._ ” Louis points between himself and Harry.

Harry stares at Louis in confusion for a few seconds before realization dawns. ”That was a hug,” He says finally.

“Oh. It was nice.”

“Yeah.” Harry manages a smile.

“Was that a sex thing? Because Niall wasn’t so clear on how all that works.”

There’s silence, and then a small snort, and then Liam explodes into peals of laughter behind them.  _ Maybe we’re all a bit hysterical.  _

“No mate, not a sex thing. A comfort thing,” Niall says.

“Oh.” Louis frowns, and Harry isn’t sure if it’s wishful thinking that he thinks Louis might sound a little disappointed. “Still nice though.”

“Yeah.” Harry nods, finally letting himself grin as Liam continued to cackle. Louis is ok. He’s  _ fine.  _ Everything’s ok. “I--”

“Not to interrupt the moment.” A new voice chips in. “But can someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

*

The new stranger is male (Liam looks a little sheepish at that), brown skinned, almost black hair, deep brown eyes, and with cheekbones to rival even Louis’. Oh, and he’s naked of course.

“He doesn't look much like Louis,” Harry notes.

“Why would he?” Niall frowns.

“You said he was our ideal man.”

“No, I said he was what you expected to see, and you thought you saw a person so the rest got sort of filled in. The human brain is programmed to see images of itself.”

“So why was this time different?” Liam asks.

“Because this time you knew what you were expecting.” Niall shrugs and turns to the man. “You did come through the portal didn't you?”

“I think so?”

“Just a sort of glowy swirly thing that sucked you in?”

“Sounds about right,” The man says.

“You’re from--” Louis starts to say, and then frowns. A look of concentration passes his face again and then a look of horror.

“What is it?” Harry asks, patting his arm.

“I can’t say it,” Louis says with alarm. “I can’t say where I come from, my home, I can’t say it!”

“You’ve forgotten?” Liam asks with a frown.

“No, I  _ can’t  _ say it!”

“It’s ok. Louis, Louis! It’s ok.” The boat is starting to rock awkwardly as Niall holds a hand out. It’s like this. He pulls Louis’ hand towards himself and taps a complicated pattern and blows gently over Louis’ fingers.

“That’s it! That’s it.” Louis sags in relief.

“They talk through air currents and charge,” Niall explains. “That’s the closest we can get to it. Otherwise it doesn’t translate.”

“Where?” The new man asks.

Niall leans over and performs the same routine.

“Yes! That’s it! Me too!”

“Well that answers one question. The portals are opening to the same place. Well these two are. Sample size of two and all that.” Niall shrugs.

“Ok,” Liam says slowly. “So is that it now? Are we done? What happens to Louis and the new guy?”

“That’s not my name.”

“Sorry, new  _ alien. _ ”

“That’s not my name either,  _ human. _ ”

“Oh. Umm. Sorry. Yeah of course. It’s Liam, by the way,” Liam corrects, blushing furiously. “What should we call you then?”

“I’m named after a city, and Niall’s a river,” Louis adds helpfully. “A river’s a line of water,” he points at the sea.

“Umm, how about _my_ _name_?” The man says a little grumpily.

“Oh! Yeah, of course,” Liam stammers. “So what is it then?”

The man pulls Liam’s hand forwards and traces a complicated pattern on it, though as Harry watches carefully he realises that he isn’t actually making contact with Liam’s skin.

“Right. Well, I think-- I think there was a ‘Z’? I don't, I mean--” Liam stammers.

The man sags in disappointment. “Right. I guess we’d better just make something up then. I quite like the planets?”

“No,” Niall says firmly. “No, we’re doing this properly. It starts with a ‘Z’ and you look like you might be from somewhere around India so we’ll go with that.”

“He sounds English,” Harry points out, as Niall whips out Harry’s phone and starts searching.

“Well I did my best!” Liam pouts. “I tried not to expect a white middle class man, I can’t get everything right.”

“You made a vogue model is what you did Leeyum,” Harry points out. “And I’m sure when he realises how pretty you’ve made him he’ll be very grateful.”

The man cocks his head in interest.

“Ok!” Niall declares. “We have: Zev, Zia, Zul-- Ooh, no, I know what we can have! Zayn! Z. A. Y. N. It means beautiful!”

Zayn shrugs. “Sounds ok to me.”

The group nod.

“Great.” Niall puts the phone away. “And in answer to your previous question Liam. No we aren’t done.”

“There are more portals coming?” Harry asks curiously.

“Probably. No more due just yet though.”

“So we can enjoy the island?” He asks hopefully.

“No, now we try to find out why they keep happening in the first place.”

“Oh.” Harry slumps.

Liam shifts and holds up his hand, there’s a faint blush across his cheeks. “Before we do that.” He says. “Can we maybe get Zayn some clothes?”

*

Zayn is clothed with minimal fuss and the boat is returned to it’s owner before Harry starts to see a whole new problem:

Louis and Zayn are chattering excitedly about human bodies and things that Harry doesn’t understand, and he’s suddenly finding himself inexplicably jealous.

He shares a knowing glance with Liam as they walk slowly along the beach.

“So, um, did you two know each other back on your planet?” He asks suddenly, interrupting Louis as he blows delicately on Zayn’s fingertips in a way that’s making Harry’s skin sing with jealousy.

“Do you know everyone on your planet?” Zayn says with a raised eyebrow.

Harry isn’t sure if he likes him. He shrugs.

“Nah, there’s a lot of us,” Louis says. “We band together into cities.”

“Like us then.”

“Not quite the same,” Niall butts in. “They’re energy based, so they can sort of overlap easier. A city isn’t made of entities separately floating around, it’s too dangerous: they have minimal effect on things of mass on their own planet and the air currents are strong. They sort of fit together, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s why they evolved social structure. I suppose it is a bit like here in that way.”

Harry experiences a sudden, piercing attack of guilt. Louis and Zayn are used to being part of a bigger entity, constantly slotted together, and Harry had told Louis off for touching people. He reaches out hurriedly to link arms with Louis and then kicks the sand awkwardly when the others all turn to stare. Liam raises an eyebrow and winks. Harry sticks his finger up.

“So… it must be strange for you, being here,” Harry says to Zayn, trying desperately to change the subject but unwilling to let Louis go now that he’s got hold of him. The man had almost  _ died  _ a few minutes ago.

“The balance is difficult.” Zayn nods as he walks elegantly forwards on 30-minute-old legs on  _ sand,  _ while Harry stumbles along beside him. “I don’t really feel anything else to be honest.”

“Oh.” Liam frowns. “Nothing at all?”

The beach finally ends back at the carpark they’d started their little trip on and Niall halts them all so he can peer at Harry’s phone once more. Harry leans over to check the battery - 100% - and rocks back nervously. He isn’t even sure anymore that he  _ wants  _ to know what Niall is. Something familiar and a bit confusing turns over in his stomach and he huddles closer to Louis.

“I don’t think so?” Zayn says, hesitating a little. “Am I supposed to? Are  _ you _ ?”

Harry opens his mouth to ask a question but Louis jumps in first. “I know exactly what you mean.”

_ Oh.  _ “You do?” Harry’s stomach drops in disappointment.

“Yeah.” Louis nods. “It’s strange. Like sometimes this body has weird sort of, currents or something, I don’t know what to call it, and sometimes I want them to keep going and sometimes I don’t, but it’s not like  _ feelings. _ ”

“Oh good.” Zayn nods. “I thought there might be something wrong with this body. I keep thinking that I should want to go home, but there’s no feeling there, there’s nothing in the air, there’s just this weird thing that’s like being poked or something.”

His hand hovers over his middle and Harry suddenly gets it. “That’s how you feel in a human body.” He says slowly. “It’s chemicals in your blood.”

“But those are physical things.” Zayn frowns. “We’re talking about emotions, things you share, things in the air.”

“It’s not like that here, I don’t think?” Liam places a hand on Zayn’s shoulder. “Feelings don’t go through the air. They’re just in your body. On the inside.”

“But that’s stupid, how are you supposed to know what someone else is feeling?” Louis snorts in disbelief.

“You don’t.” Niall puts the phone down. “I’m sorry lads, you’re going to have to get used to humans. It’s a bit of a pain.”

“But how can you tell if they’re telling the truth or not?” Louis says with wide eyes.

“Sometimes you can’t.”

“And how do you know if someone’s upset?” Zayn says, the colour draining from his face.

“It’s difficult,” Liam says.

“And how do you know if there’s something wrong with you?”

“You have to go to the doctor.”

“But-- But how can they  _ tell?  _ I don’t-- How can you function like that? I thought-- the air is moving, and you touch people and it’s  _ warm _ , and sometimes my skin tingles. I thought--”

“You thought they were feelings and you just didn’t understand them?” Niall says quietly.

Harry jerks as Louis pulls himself away, finally untangling their linked arms. He’s breathing faster than he should be as he takes another step back. “You said not to touch people, I just thought it was a different type of emotion, I thought maybe direct contact was too much. Just for special occasions. It made  _ sense.  _ The normal emotions are in the air, I could feel it on the plane, everyone was excited, I could  _ feel  _ it.”

Harry doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know how to describe anything, he doesn’t know how to comfort someone who hasn’t felt emotions before.

“I’m so sorry,” Niall whispers. “It was just the pressure on the plane, humans do have electrical signals, you might have felt something, but it’s not like your home.”

“So we’re just-- alone?”

“I’m sorry,” Niall says sadly.

Louis stares at Zayn, and then at Liam, and then at Harry. “This is a feeling then?” He places a hand over his middle. “This?”

Harry nods silently.

Louis clenches his hand, grinding his fist into the spot. “I don’t like this one.” He says, gritting his teeth.

Harry feels his own chest clench and takes a step forwards.

“Harry, how do I make it go away?”

“You can’t,” Harry whispers.

“Harry?” Louis shakes his head, pleading.

Harry doesn’t know how to comfort someone who isn’t human; he shakes his head as he takes a step forwards. But then, if Louis wasn’t human they wouldn’t be in this mess would they? Louis and Zayn are in  _ human  _ bodies dealing with  _ human  _ emotions.

So maybe Harry can do human comfort?

“This helps,” He says quietly, wrapping Louis firmly up in his arms.

*

Liam dutifully accepts ‘Zayn cuddle duty,’ and the four of them stand there in a peculiar sort of group hug until Niall finally calls a stop to it.

“You’ll be ok lads,” He says, patting Louis and Zayn on the shoulders. ”You aren’t the first of your kind to be here. It might take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll be ok.”

“We’re not?” Zayn asks curiously.

“Nope.”

“Oh.”

They shuffle quietly for a moment, absorbing the information. Harry can still feel his chest tingling where Louis had been pressed up against it - figures that the perfect man would be the perfect fit. Cuddle sized.

“So what happens next then?” Louis asks.  

“Next, we nip to Switzerland.” Niall nods, a grin breaking over his face.

“Excuse me?” Harry says.

“Switzerland. To CERN I think. A large concentrated group of particle physicists should do the trick.”

“There are people like us there?” Zayn asks hopefully.

“Oh no, but they might be able to help us with what’s happening.”

“You think they’ll know why we were dragged here?”

“Absolutely not. But I think they’ll have been taking readings. I just need five minutes with their data.” Niall gets a lustful look in his eye that Harry doesn’t think really belongs with the sentiment. “Just five minutes.”

*

Fortunately, Niall doesn’t insist they go right that second. Instead, he leads them to a taverna called the International Café. “We’re international travelers, so this should be the perfect place,” He says, as they settle in the comfortable arm chairs.

Harry looks around the bunch. Zayn has been moving more confidently and seems to have shaken off his earlier panic, although he keeps touching his stomach and he doesn’t seem willing to move far from Liam. Louis on the other hand seems to have decided that constant contact with Harry is the only real option, and has tangled their fingers together.

Harry makes a note to explain the connotations of that particular motion. Later though. It’s been a long and extremely weird day and he’s decided that they both need the contact right now.

He sits back in his chair. The air is warm and Niall says that they’ve got a townhouse booked to stay in, and there are horse drawn carriages trotting merrily up and down the paraleia, and there’s a warm hand gripping his. Harry thinks this might be paradise.

A stray cat rubs against his legs and he finally lets his fingers untangle from Louis’ to scratch it behind the ears.

“Are they intelligent?” Louis asks curiously. “How did you bring it here?”

Niall looks up sharply and then down at the cat. “Self indulgent nonsense,” He mutters.

“Uhh, OK?” Louis shrugs.

“It's a stray,” Harry jumps in, ignoring Niall's frown. “Cats live around humans, but some don't belong to people. They're not really wild though.”

“Oh.” Louis scrunched up his nose. “Does that make  _ me _ a stray?”

Harry grins and shrugs. “I took in a stray cat once, he's called Bob.”

“Hmm, where do you keep him?”

“He likes the house. Sometimes he goes outside. He sleeps on my bed.”

Louis grins. “I definitely think I'm a stray then.” He gives a wide-eyed, helpless look. “Will you take me home too?”

Harry grins wider. “I--”

“Why is your cat called Bob?” Niall snaps, effectively ruining the moment.

Harry glares at him. “It was a children's book,” He grumbles, continuing to stroke the little black feline. “ _ Curious Bob the Celestial Dog _ . It was my favourite. ‘In a place that's no place, on the edge of space--’”

“But he's not a dog,” Niall interrupts, rudely.

“Well I didn't have a dog, did I? What's got you in such a stroppy mood?”

“Sorry.” Niall shrugs. “I don't like cats.”

Harry has a ‘why not’ on the edge of his tongue when their food comes. He drops a chip down to the cat just to watch the annoyed look pass over Niall’s face, and the four of them eat in silence for a while.

Well, mostly silence. They’ve started Zayn on chips after having learned with Louis that spaghetti was not a beginner’s meal, and Niall quietly talks him through the process as they eat. Zayn’s much less vocal with the learning experience than Louis was, for which Harry is grateful.

“It’s not all bad here, right?” Harry asks Louis quietly, as the alien slowly munches on his last prawn with his eyes closed. He’d declared himself a professional eater and refused to have chips with Zayn. Harry suspects he was trying to show off.

“Not all bad,” Louis says, swallowing his mouthful and offering a small smile. “It’s a bit weird that the breathing part and the swallowing part are done with the same tube though.”

“Hah, you’re going to love sex then.” Harry says, before he can stop himself, wincing as he feels his face flame a bright red.

“Really?” Louis leans over with gleeful curiosity.

“No,” Niall snaps, leaning forwards. “Because you aren’t going to be having any.”

Louis flops back sulkily and Harry hangs his head, not sure if he’s relieved or disappointed that Niall had put a firm stop to that conversation.

“It’s time for a new lesson for Zayn though,” Niall continues.

Liam looks up in interest.

“It’s time to learn about sleep.”

*

The town house is comfortable and airy, with painted white walls and gentle blue shutters. Niall takes a bed at the very top of the narrow three story building, and insists that Louis and Zayn share the large master bed on the middle floor and Harry and Liam take the pull-out double sofa bed on the ground floor. Harry’s almost offended, but Zayn quietly mutters that he’d quite like it if Louis could explain some things about being human to him, and Harry lets the guilt wash the jealousy away.

“Liam?” He mutters into the dark when the lights are out and all he can hear is the quiet chatter from the paraleia below. “What are we doing?”

“Sleeping?” Liam whispers back, and Harry kicks him with a smile. “No, seriously Haz, I have no idea. But we can’t just leave them can we? We’ve come this far and they need us, so we’ll just keep going until we stop.”

“Ok,” Harry says, feeling something unwind in his stomach. This is why he’s always gotten on with Liam - he doesn’t overthink, he doesn’t worry about things that don’t need worrying about. He sees things as they are. “Do you think everything’s going to work out?”

Liam pauses for a moment. “Yeah,” He says finally. “I actually do. Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Louis’ pretty isn’t he?”

“Shut up,” Harry laughs and kicks out at Liam again.

“Harry?”

“What?” Harry grins.

“So’s Zayn.”

*

The sea is crystal clear and calm the next day when the boat sets back out to Skiathos.

“Looks like you could walk on it,” Louis mutters.

“I’ll teach you to swim if you like? After we’re done with this,” Harry offers, gesturing around to signify their general quest.

Louis smiles curiously and nods.

There aren’t any porpoises this time, but there aren’t any big waves either, and Harry feels slightly easier as the five of them wander around the ship; Louis and Zayn enjoying the air whipping past in a way that Harry suspects is not human. They’d spent the morning relaxing, letting Zayn settle into his skin and enjoying the sun before Niall had finally chivvied them onto a boat.

They get to the airport with minimal fuss, and Louis tries to talk Zayn through the whole aeroplane ordeal, but Zayn simply tips his head back and smiles as they take off.

“It’s like music,” He says.

“What is?” Harry asks.

“The pressure, the air.“

Louis nods knowingly. “It’s calmer than when we set out though, more peaceful.”

Harry looks around at the calm, wistful faces. “People are going home.”

He settles back in his seat to take it all in, wondering how two aliens are somehow teaching him more about being human than he’d managed to learn in this 21 years.

They change planes in Athens and the journey takes far too long, and then before Harry really has the chance to catch up with where they are now and what time it is he’s being bundled into a hotel room with Liam, and Louis and Zayn are off in another suite and Niall is off somewhere else all together.

“Liam?” Harry whispers into the darkness, not really sure that they’ve gone anywhere and suddenly thinking that they might still be back on the island of Skopelos in the Greek sun.

“Yeah?”

“We’re in Geneva.”

“Yeah.”

“Ok.”

They fall into silence, and Harry lets the quiet hum of the air conditioner carry him off to sleep.

*

Switzerland is warmer than he thought it would be, and Harry tries not to feel too jealous as he stares out of the train windows to rolling green fields on one side and a sparkling blue lake on the other. ‘Bienvenue,’ the train welcomes them, first in French, then German, then English.

“Bienvenue,” Louis parrots back, grinning.

“You’re getting the hang of this,” Harry laughs as Louis wobbles carefully along the moving train carriage to find a seat, pulling Harry behind him.

“This body already knows how to balance.” Louis smiles. “It’s only a problem when I start to think about it.”

He keeps hold of Harry’s hand until they’re sitting down though, and takes it back up again when they finally arrive at the large, grey building of CERN.

Niall tells them to wait outside whilst he goes to investigate and apparently  _ do physics  _ by himself. Harry’s a little put out by it, but apparently the visitor tours aren’t on today and Niall doesn’t want them to be a nuisance. He feels even more annoyed at being called a  _ nuisance _ , but he tells himself that the problem is probably that they’ve got two literally illegal aliens _ , _ and it probably isn’t the best idea to put them nose to nose with roomful of scientists.

He takes it back when it becomes clear that there seem to be as many scientists outside enjoying the sun than there are inside.

“It’s a think tank,” Niall says when he comes out at lunchtime to bring them sandwiches. “They’re pretty free here, no fixed working hours or anything, as long as they get the work done not much else matters. There are plenty of pale people data mining inside though, if that’s what you want, but it’s a pretty diverse crowd.”

“Have you found anything out?” Zayn asks.

Niall shifts guiltily and shakes his head. “No. Nothing yet.”

Harry isn’t sure he believes him, but he lets it go.

They’ve spent the morning playing ping pong on a stone table they’d found outside with some bats that a cheerful German-sounding scientist had lent them, and then they’d played a fairly disastrous game of football with another group. They weren’t the nerdy bunch he’d been expecting when he’d thought of physicists, but they’d been extremely forgiving when Harry had tripped over his own feet and Louis had kicked a ball in one of their faces. Zayn had given the ball a few experimental taps and then decided to stay somewhere in the back. Harry privately thought that Louis might actually be quite good with a bit of practice.

Niall had been right though, they were a diverse group.

“So, you speak Spanish?” Harry asks Louis when they’re laid out on the glass enjoying the late afternoon sun.

“Don’t think so?” Louis replies.

“You were speaking Spanish.”

“Was I?”

“Yeah. Easily as English.”

“Well I don’t really speak English either I don’t think? I just point and speak and they understand me.”

“Universal translator,” Liam says. “Neat.”

They stare at the sky for a while longer, making shapes out of tiny wisps of cloud.

Harry sits up when he hears footfalls. Niall is heading towards him. Harry squints as he gets closer; his hair is mussed, and his face is almost grey, and as he reaches them he drops to his knees and rubs a tired hand over his eyes.

“You found the answer,” Zayn says quietly, as the rest of them sit up slowly.

Niall nods.

“It’s something bad?” Liam asks.

Niall nods.

The grounds outside are peaceful now, with most of the physicists inside, and somewhere in the distance there are seagulls calling. It’s not the place for bad news, Harry thinks.

“So there’s a problem with the portals?” He prompts, needing to hear what Niall’s found out.

“The portals aren’t the problem, they’re just arbitrary negative energy density spots-- They’re a  _ symptom.  _ They’re just a symptom.”

“Of what?”

Niall takes a deep breath and lets it out shakily. The sky's still blue, the air is still warm, the birds are still calling. It’s not the time for bad news, Harry thinks.

“There’s something wrong with the sun.”


	4. And we know it

****_ And inside each one _

_ A universe comes _

_ From one poke of a celestial toe _

 

“Wrong?  _ Wrong _ , wrong? How wrong?” Harry can’t quite get his head around it. There can’t be something wrong with the sun, it’s  _ the sun.  _ It’s just there. It just  _ is. _

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Then how can you be sure there’s anything wrong at all?”

Niall squints at them for a moment. “Do you know what they do here?”

“They make wormholes, or something?” Liam asks.

“No. Not at all. Magnetic wormholes have been made but not here.”

“Then what do they do?”

“They collide particles. They fire them round in this massive tube and smash them together to see what comes out.”

Harry tries to get his head around that. Tiny things smashing together on earth don’t seem to have much to do with what happens in the sky. He looks over at the slowly setting sun as they walk back to their hotel in Geneva; bright pinks and oranges are washed across in vibrant stripes, lighting up the Alps across the lake, reflecting back from the snow-topped mountains. It doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong to him. “So what does that have to do with the sun?”

Niall sighs. “It’s complicated. But basically, the decay rate has changed.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know,” Niall says glumly. “Look, it’s like this: when they smash particles together the bits that get made only stay for a tiny length of time, which is good, it’s how it should be. Only now they’re staying around for longer than they should. It’s not enough for anyone to notice just yet. But it’s there in the data.”

“And that’s bad for the sun?”

Niall squints up at the offending object. “Sort of. Everything’s connected through an energy field. You currently call it the Higgs field, but it’s had a lot of names through the past. If the decay rate changes then everything gets unbalanced.”

“And you get wormholes when things are unbalanced?” Zayn asks slowly.

“Sometimes.” Niall scrunches his face up. “You see, there’s a finite amount of matter in the universe, so if there’s too much matter in some places then it must be being pulled from other places. Wormholes pop up from time to time but they last for such a short length of time that you’d never know about it. But a negative mass cosmic string can hold open a wormhole. It’s like, when the mass gets pulled away the wormhole becomes stable.”

“So the wormholes are staying open in places because there’s no mass there,” Zayn says.

“Exactly.”

“And the places where there is mass are sort of sloshing around, like water.”

“Exactly like water, except not all all,” Niall says, beaming. “It’s like having a door on the beach and you can only open it when the tide goes out.”

Harry stares up at the sky again. His brain is hurting. “So what does  _ that  _ have to do with the sun?”

Niall sighs and wraps his arms around himself. “To be honest I’m not sure, but something is fundamentally wrong with the universe, and if I’m not mistaken, the sun seems to be the source of it.”

“And if you are mistaken?”

“Then I have no idea what’s going on.”

*

Niall suggests they go to Colorado, and Harry doesn’t even bother to ask about visas and insurance and tickets, because he has a sneaking suspicion that Niall will magically manage to pull them out of thin air if he does.

He  _ almost  _ asks about the effect that Niall’s tricks must be having on the universe - if they’re really in this mess because everything is unbalanced then surely Niall charging phones on air and pulling new passports into existence must only be making things worse? He doesn’t ask though, because he’s afraid Niall might actually answer him.

“So. Colorado,” Harry says slowly, as they pass through security at the fifth airport he’s seen in four days: Gatwick, Skiathos, Athens, Geneva, Denver. He’s been counting.

“Boulder. There are some guys here working on photometric magnetic-activity.” Niall nods. “I know it’s not perfect but I think it’s the best we can do for now.”

The five of them climb into a large humvee (legally rented this time, or well, as legal as Harry thinks Niall can be,) and head out to the university straight away. Zayn has taken to hanging his head out the window just like Louis. Harry suspects that there’s something there that he’s missing. Some alien thing. In the front seat, Liam is dozing as Niall concentrates on the road.

Harry lets himself nod off for a while. The flight had been over 14 hours with a layover in Gatwick and his body is now seriously confused. He’s pretty sure it’s night-time, but his magically roaming phone tells him that it’s early afternoon.

He wakes up an indeterminate amount of time later to an empty car and the quiet tick of settling metal.

“Niall’s gone in,” Louis says, appearing from nowhere and threatening Harry’s control over his bladder.

The alien is grinning at him from the open car window when Harry turns to glare, he shrugs unrepentantly.

“Why aren’t you tired,” Harry snaps.

Louis cocks his head to the side. “I am I think, but the sun is warm and it smells nice, so... I can sleep later.”

Harry slumps back, unsure if he should be irritated or impressed. Maybe it’s easier to have a positive outlook when you’re so new to the nightmare that is the human body? Or maybe it’s because Louis’ is what, 3 days old?

“Children should be seen and not heard,” Harry grumbles.

Louis’ grin widens and he winks. “Lucky I’m all grown up then. Get out.”

Harry huffs and stumbles his way out, letting Louis’ strong hands tug him upright. He leans himself up against the hood of the car, propping his elbows on the warm metal. A beautiful, sandy coloured brick building stands idyllically amongst a scattering of vibrant green trees with an immaculate grassy lawn stretching up to it. He can see mountains in the distance and the air is cool and clean. And Louis is right, it does smell nice. Liam is walking nearby with Zayn, presumably imparting all the human wisdom he thinks the man needs. As he passes by he glances up and exchanges a grin with Harry. Harry settles himself back comfortably. It may not be the holiday he’d planned, but it’s not at all bad.

A shadow blocks out the sun and Harry turns back as Louis crowds into his space, shuffling up to stand between his knees. Harry grins. “You know people don’t usually stand that close to each other.” He says, pushing himself up a little higher on his elbows.

“I’m not people. And Liam already told me that at the airport.  _ And,  _ you like it.”

Harry snorts.  __ “Which airport?” Is what he chooses to focus on as Louis moves in closer, letting their thighs touch in a warm line.

Louis shrugs. “Don’t remember. You know there’s a lot of things I haven’t tried yet as a newly made human.”

Harry’s throat goes dry.

“There are all these chemicals, these feelings trying to make me do things.”

“Oh?” Harry croaks. Not sure how they’ve suddenly goten onto this topic.

“I asked Niall about them, but I’m not sure he really understands these things.”

“No, probably not.”

Louis nods in understanding. “But I think maybe you understand these things.”

“I--”

Harry loses his train of thought as Louis leans in, and Harry is so sure that he’s going to be kissed and so conflicted over what to do about it that he startles when Louis only rests their foreheads together. How the hell had they gotten to this so fast? He’d been blindsided, that’s the problem.

“You watch me, I know you do,” Louis whispers. “And I know you like this body because you  _ chose  _ it.”

“It’s not just about that,” Harry manages as his head spins. Sure they’d been building to this conversation, and Louis was bound to want to see what his new body could do, but-

“And this body likes you,” Louis murmurs, “I can tell that too. When I do this-” Louis presses his hand against Harry’s chest. “Everything goes  _ tight. _ ”

“Jesus.” Harry shakes his head, leaning back, trying to get some space. “I can’t- I don’t want to take advantage.”

Louis frowns. “I know what this body wants.”

“But what do  _ you _ want?”

Louis’s blue eyes stare at Harry’s and he shivers as the sun ducks behind another cloud. They stare at each other until it comes out again, and Louis smiles.

“I want you to teach me all about being human. I want to listen to you talk and spend time with you.  I want to bring you things that make you smile. I want to hear you laugh. I want to spend as much time as I can with you while I’m here on your earth. I want to experience everything it is to be human, and I want to do it with you.”

Well  _ shit.  _ Something swoops in Harry’s chest and the last of his resolve crumbles. There are centimeters between them, millimeters, and Harry can feel Louis’ warm breath on his lips, and--

There’s a sudden crash and Louis pulls back with a frown. Across the grassy lawn, Niall comes flying out of the university building. “Get in!”

“What?” Harry blinks stupidly.

“The car! All of you! Get in!”

Zayn and Liam come pottering over as Niall finally reaches them, panting and wide eyed.

“Why?” Zayn asks cautiously.

“Another portal. There’s another,” Niall gasps, leaning against the car to get his breath back. “We have to go see it.”

“But we’ve only just got here,” Liam whines, echoing Harry’s thoughts perfectly.

“We have to go now!”

“But what about the sun? The magneto-thingy data?”

“We’ve got all we can from here. This is too important, we have to  _ go! _ ”

Niall bundles them all into the car and pulls away so fast that Harry’s speechless for a good 15 minutes. As they come closer to the shadow of the mountains though, the car finally starts to slow.

“That was some pretty fast driving Niall,” Louis says, breaking the silence.

“We don’t want to miss the window.”

“There’s a window?”

“The portal, we don’t want to miss it opening,  they don’t last long. I don’t know how I missed it, I should have seen it hours ago.”

“Are we going back to the university afterwards?” Liam jumps in.

“No.”

There’s silence as the car moves steadily between the mountains.

“So you know what’s wrong with the sun then?” Zayn asks.

“No.”

“Then we’re going to go somewhere else next?”

“No.”

“Niall,” Harry asks impatiently, “just tell us what you found out.”

Niall shakes his head as the car pulls off the road and onto a small truck stop. “We have to find the portal. That’s all that matters right now.”

They climb out cautiously, the unease radiating from their guide making everyone nervous. Harry hasn’t known Niall long, but something tells him that this behaviour isn’t normal.

“Something’s happened,” Zayn says, stepping up quietly beside him.

“He didn’t look good in Geneva either.” Harry nods in agreement. “It must be bad.”

They break apart at Niall’s frantic urging and continue on their hunt. The sky is darkening and the wind is picking up. Either side of the road the mountains rise high and steep with small trees littering their sides. A snaking river winds along beside the road.

“Maybe it’s in the water again?” Louis calls, as the five of them spread out across the bank.

There’s a lack of tourists that Harry suspects isn’t normal and the feeling in his gut telling him to get away from here is presumably the reason.

“I don’t feel right. My body...” Zayn trails off.

Harry nods. “Niall what’s going on?”

Niall turns to face them, pale faced and fidgeting. “They’re all different. The more we see the more we can work out- I just need to  _ see _ it.” He spins around a few times, frantically searching.

The feeling of foreboding morphs suddenly to a sort of pull in Harry’s gut, and he decides that everything going on is sufficiently weird that it might mean something. He follows it down to the riverbank. There’s something glowing in the water, and the wind has sprung up from nowhere and the smell-

It smells like dirt _ ,  _ but stronger, concentrated. Not a hint of pineapple. At his feet the current picks up.  __ Harry frowns, ignoring his hair as it whips into his face. Something’s not right. “Guys?” He calls hesitantly.

The pull gets stronger. From further up the bank Louis stumbles towards him. Trees groan and the wind threatens to drown out his words. “Huh. That feels sort of-” The alien puts a hand on his middle.

“Guys!” Harry shouts louder, his voice whipping away from him. The pull is getting stronger, and Harry grabs firmly ahold of Louis as he starts to walk into the suddenly foaming water. “You can’t swim, remember?”

Louis looks up at him with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”

Harry shakes his head. “Niall!” He bellows. Zayn has reached them now, and Harry catches hold of his arm as he too starts into the water. “Niall there’s something wrong! Niall!”

“I don’t- I want-” Zayn shakes his head. “It’s pulling me!”

“I know.” Harry shouts. Further up the bank a sapling snaps. “It’s trying to convince us to go closer.”

“No, Harry it’s  _ pulling  _ me!” Zayn shouts, pointing desperately to his feet where against all known laws of physics, Zayn is sliding slowly into the frothing water. “I can’t swim! Liam?!”

Liam bursts out of the undergrowth and Harry throws his hand up. “Liam no!” He can feel something pulling at him, tugging, he can feel himself sliding. “Liam it’s sucking us in, get Niall, find Niall!”

“Harry?” Louis tugs at his arm, staring in horror at the water that’s slowly rising. “What are we… We can’t breathe in water. What happens when we stop breathing?”

Harry’s chest clenches. “That isn’t going to happen.”

Zayn’s looking at them with frightened eyes as the river starts to roar. “I’m sinking.”

The dirt smell is clogging his lungs, and Harry realises with a start that Zayn’s right. They aren’t being sucked along the river bed anymore they’re being sucked  _ down.  _ Impossibly down. Down through layers of silt and rock. He swings round but there’s nothing to hold onto, nothing to pull. The water is up to his knees, up to his thighs, and his throat is tightening, threatening to choke him before the water gets the chance. Beside him Louis is spinning around fruitlessly and Zayn is in touching distance but there are no trees, nothing to hold on to. Nothing. Desperately Harry leans over to claw at the ground, to pull himself away. His hands stick to the rock like magnets. He coughs as the water splashes up into his mouth, his eyes.

“Zayn!” Liam yells. “Harry! Louis! I can’t find Niall!”

Harry tries to move his legs, his arms. From the corner of his eye he can see Liam reaching out and he drags his face higher out of the water. “Liam no!” But it’s too late. Liam takes hold of Louis’ arm and tugs once, twice.

Harry sees him hesitate. Sees his feet start to slide. Sees his eyes widen as he realises he can’t get away. The water is roaring, tossed and turned by the wind and the four of them are a rock, a stone, a jetty in the centre of it all. The water’s above Harry’s mouth and splashing into his eyes, his nose now, and beside him Louis is sinking faster and Zayn is yelling and Liam is whipping his upper body uselessly around-

And then there’s another voice.

“Niall!” Liam should desperately. “Niall help! Niall what do we do!”

And then Harry’s head is under the water and he can’t breathe. He can’t breathe and the portal’s going to drown them all and he can’t stop it. But then there are arms hooking underneath his, and his head is breaching the water and he takes in a shuddering gasp. He looks up to Louis’ terrified face as they all stumble confusedly to their feet.

Niall splashes towards them with his mouth open, the pull suddenly gone. The air still.

“It’s over?” Harry asks hesitantly. “What did you do?”

Niall shakes his head. “I didn’t do anything I-”

And then the ground falls away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh.


	5. Like a whirlpool, it never ends

_ Now our hero Bob _

_ Takes the form of a dog _

_ And waits for his bubble to form _

 

They’re falling.

Harry doesn’t know how long they fall. He thinks it might be forever. He thinks he might not be falling at all. They land with a thump and Harry can’t breathe. 

He spins to find the others and the air moves with him, or maybe it doesn’t, he isn’t sure- it’s like water but not, it’s like gel, it’s heavy and clinging and not breathable. It’s buzzing. Harry opens his mouth in terror and there are waves of something hot and sharp across his tongue and it’s coming from four different directions.

It tingles. It itches. It’s crawling up his nose and into his mouth. His eyes hurt, but he can’t afford to shut them.

It smells of pineapples. 

_ Niall help!  _ Harry says, but there’s no air for the words. The thought whips out of his mouth like a feather in a storm. He can’t see Niall, he can’t see anyone. The gel is a deep blue, shading to purple and the light pierces through it like deep water. He tries to move his feet and they’re heavy, sluggish. 

This isn’t earth. This  _ can’t _ be earth.

_ Your hand!  _ The words come to him through the murk and he drags his arms up as his lungs start to burn and his eyes fade.  _ Harry your hand!  _

Harry’s choking. He’s choking and alone in the blue and he thinks he might be screaming if there was air in his lungs, but there’s something moving through the gel and the taste on his tongue is getting sharper and then there’s a new sensation, a different type of buzz, something that soothes and doesn’t hurt. Something like warm air on his face.

And then there’s a hand in his and the burning stops, and Harry can breathe.

He gasps it shakily, clinging to the fingers. They’re connected to a shape that’s blonde on top, and as it inches closer Harry can see Niall’s face tinted blue, his eyes wide and urgent. 

_ Harry grab Louis!  _ He feels through the air.  _ Grab Louis! Harry now!! _

Niall’s mouth hasn’t moved. It hasn’t moved, but Harry can still hear him. 

_ Harry now!! _

Harry turns his head slowly, forcing through the shock, the confusion. It’s sharp in that direction. Still so sharp, and Harry likes Niall’s section of gel better, he likes the warm, the gentle tingling. 

_ Harry! _

But that felt like Louis, that sharp pain lancing over his face, and Harry doesn’t know how that could be, but there’s another blur on the other side of him so he raises his hand up and grabs it. 

The sharpness stops suddenly, and the air settles.

_ Louis _ . But that’s only three of them.  _ Liam! Zayn!  _ Harry panics, twisting his shoulders to look for the other two. 

_ I’ve got them! It’s ok Harry I’ve got them, they’re safe. But nobody can let go. Do you understand me?  _ Niall’s voice echoes through the blue, sharp and urgent. Well voice isn’t quite right, but Harry doesn’t know how to think about it. He doesn’t know how to understand what’s going on. He can’t get his head around what’s happening. They must be in the portal. They must be trapped. Or maybe even dead? He can feel the panic start to rise again and the air around him vibrates angrily.

_ It’s ok Harry, you can calm down,  _ Louis says.  _ Don’t you want to meet my parents?  _ His voice is cheerful but it’s tinged with something that feels like sadness washing over his skin.

Louis’ parents. Harry’s mouth goes numb. His stomach twists. Louis’ parents. 

Louis’ world. They aren’t on earth. They aren’t at home. How are they supposed to get home! Harry’s breaths are coming in short bursts and the air presses in around him in a prickly, cloying gel. He twists his head to look around but he can’t  _ see _ . He can’t see anything. 

This is Louis’ world. Where aliens have no mass and emotions are on the outside. He hauls Louis closer to himself and quickly runs his arm down from where he’s been grabbing his shoulder until he can tangle their fingers together, clutching tightly at him, at another human body. He takes a steadying breath, tasting the weak hint of pineapple that remains. 

_ What are we breathing?  _ Harry thinks.

_ Air,  _ Niall replies.  _ I’m filtering the air for you into something you can breathe. If you let go it’ll stop, so don’t let go.  _

_ What are you?  _ Harry thinks. 

The murky blue is silent.

_ Where are we?  _ Another voice calls through the gloom, and Harry can feel the air around Niall brighten. 

_ Welcome to -- .  _ Niall says, only the word is a feeling like a tapping on his hand and a gentle puff of air.  _ The air isn’t suitable for breathing here and the gravity is stronger than you’re used to. Also the atmosphere is made up of reactive esters and it’s damaging to human skin, so whatever you do you can’t let go, ok? As long as you’re holding on to me you’ll be ok. Even you two -- --.  _

There’s a feeling like a zigzag and then a sort of twist and two breaths of air.  _ Zayn. Louis.  _ Harry thinks, only those thoughts wash out of him as well.  _ No.  _ Harry thinks, trying to tug the thoughts back in. 

_ Harry?  _ The air tastes like Liam, but it hurts.  _ Harry can you hear me? Harry I can’t think. Or I can think. Everything I think. Harry we’re not supposed to think. Everything. There’s no. Harry my thoughts! _

Harry frowns at the jumble.

_ Is that really what goes through your head Liam?  _ Louis thinks, and Harry gets the words with a gentle tingle that washes down to his toes and somehow soothes him.  _ It’s ok. Just don’t think too loudly and you can keep them to yourself. _

_ You didn’t tell me you could read minds,  _ Liam thinks desperately.

_ We can’t. Not on your world. Don’t worry, you’ll learn to control it. To direct it.  _ The thoughts taste like Zayn, and there’s more of that reassuring warmth that Harry suspects Louis and Zayn are skillfully generating on purpose. 

_ Hopefully we won’t be here long enough for that,  _ Niall thinks.

_ Niall?  _ The thoughts are slow, cautious. Zayn again.  _ Why are we still like this? Shouldn’t we have gone back to normal by now.  _

There’s a pause that lasts too long and the air tenses around them. Louis’ grip tightens on Harry’s hand. 

_ I’m so sorry.  _ Harry can feel the sadness trickling off Niall’s skin.  _ You can’t go back. I can’t strip this form from you without scattering your energy. It’s permanent. _

A wave of knives crashes over Harry, so loud that he can’t hear his thoughts, so strong that he shakes on his feet. 

For a moment he thinks he’s let go of Niall. He can’t breathe. The emotions are too strong. The pain in the air is forcing him to his knees. He can’t see. He can’t feel. He can’t think. Something wet trickles down from his nose.

And then it stops.

_ I’m sorry,  _ Louis thinks. 

_ I’m sorry,  _ Zayn echoes.

_ You’re bleeding,  _ Louis thinks,  _ I’m so sorry.  _

A rolling current of warmth floods from both sides, soothing over the pain, but it’s aching, and Harry could never have imagined the feeling of grief from the outside, but now he doesn’t have to. God it hurts. How are they supposed to survive here? How can anyone survive like this with their thoughts and emotions rolling out into the blue? And then another thought strikes him.  _ How did they survive on our world? How did they manage with everything so different? _

Another wave of knives lashes at Harry’s skin and he only has one thought.  _ How can I help? _

_ Shut your eyes,  _ Niall whispers from beside him, and Harry can feel a calm behind it, as if he were forcing a peace on the rest of them.  _ Shut them tight and think of the happiest things you can, but not in words, just the feeling.  _

_ Dementors. Patronus.  _ Flutters over the air from Liam, and suddenly Harry has his answer.

He thinks of Liam, laughing with him over those stupid movies, he thinks of them singing karaoke together and Liam’s mortal offence when they didn’t win the one competition they entered. He thinks of Louis, lagging in the sun and of Zayn always asking the smart questions and of Niall’s excitement at that first portal.  _ Friends,  _ he thinks,  _ family.  _

*

When Harry opens his eyes the air around him is twinkling and warm, and the blue is as bright as the Colorado sky. 

_ Thank you,  _ Louis breathes.  

Harry squeezes his hand. He wipes his bleeding nose on his shoulder with a difficult shrug, wincing as he goes.  _ Gross.  _

Louis nods.  _ I’m sorry.  _ They wait for a beat while the air settles again.  _ I guess we’d better get moving then.  _ Louis says.  _ Where too Niall? _

Harry turns to look at their guide. Niall’s squinting into the distance and the blue gel has made his hair stand on end. He almost smiles. 

_ We need to get to the nearest city and find out what they know. Does anyone know where we are?  _ Niall asks.

_ I think -- .  _ A whisper and a flicker come from Zayn’s direction. A place name, Harry assumes. 

_ Oh! We’re near my home.  _ Louis says. 

Harry wishes he could ignore the sadness that’s making his cheeks tingle.  _ Family _ , he projects again, because Louis has him and Liam and Niall and Zayn now and they aren’t going to let him go. Beside him, Niall squeezes his hand and on his other side, there’s a faint smile on Louis’ blue tinted mouth.

They start moving, slowly at first, getting used to the gravity and their heavy feet. Harry looks searchingly around himself, but he still can’t see much and he feels sort of cheated at that. It’s his first alien world and he can’t see any of it. There are two points of light from above them which are presumably two suns, and the floor is some sort of rock but it looks greener than anything he’s seen on earth.

They walk until Harry’s feet start to throb and his thighs ache and his back hurts. His head feels heavier than it’s ever been, and by the time Niall stops them he’s desperately thirsty. 

_ Water?  _ He sends.

_ There isn’t any on this world,  _ Niall sends back. 

A lick of terror goes through Harry and out into the air, and there’s an answering prickle across his skin that can only be Liam.

_ We have to get back,  _ Harry sends. 

_ Yes.  _ Niall agrees.

They rest for a few more minutes until Niall starts them off again. He can feel Louis beside him, his skin humming with a tension that he must be fighting to keep in. 

_ Family. Warmth. Light. Joy.  _ Harry fires at him. 

_ Thank you,  _ Louis sends.  _ I’m ok. _

_ You can’t lie to me here, right?  _ Harry thinks with a weak grin.

There’s a tingle of amusement.

_ I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.  _ Harry sends, feeling the air colour with sadness and failing utterly to stop it.

_ It could have been worse,  _ Louis sends.  _ I was always on the outskirts. It was too much sometimes. When we’re younger we want to explore things for ourselves, feel for ourselves. I couldn’t leave the current, but sometimes I went round the edges, I let myself drift. I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I just- I think it was better before we came back here. I wish we hadn’t. _

_ I’m so sorry this happened,  _ Harry thinks. 

Louis squeezes his hand.  _ It’s just worse somehow, coming back and seeing it like this. Nothing’s the same. Everything is sharp and confusing and I can’t see properly. Everything’s blue. I never knew my world was blue. I never saw rocks and colour. And the smell. I never knew my world smelled like this. It was all currents in the air, and now I can’t even feel that properly.  _

Harry doesn’t know what to say to that, so he thinks  _ comfort,  _ and pulls Louis closer to himself. 

*

Harry doesn’t know how long they’ve walked for, but everything in his body hurts and there’s a new sort of buzz in the air. It’s heavy, solid almost, like a wall of electricity. Self preservation stops him a second before Niall does. 

_ We stop here,  _ Niall sends.  _ We can’t touch them, not with human bodies, we’d be electrocuted.  _

_ Them?  _ Harry asks. 

_ Them.  _ Louis points their joined hands.

Harry squints, and then squints harder. There’s something in the air. Something like a shimmer. Like hot air rising off a pavement. Something making the air vibrate. Adrenaline rushes through him and suddenly it doesn’t matter that his tongue is thick from thirst and his throat is burning and his muscles hurt.

They’re on another planet. They’re actually on another planet and in front of them-

_ The city,  _ Zayn breathes. 

_ Aliens.  _ Harry whispers.

_ Do they know we’re here?  _ Liam says.

_ YES _

The voice is everywhere. It’s many. It’s  _ all _ . There are a thousand textures and echoes and angles. The weight of it bows Harry’s head, makes him gasp.

_ Too much.  _ Liam grits out. 

The echoes pull back.

_ Apology. Regret. Calm.  _

The feelings weight the air, rushing towards them like a tidal wave. Like a storm battering the cliffs. 

_ Less.  _ Niall hisses.  _ Less. They are not like you. They can’t withstand it.  _

The wave pulls back again and the one that returns is soothing, gentle. 

_ Thank you.  _ Niall thinks.

_ We do not wish you harm.  _

_ If you do not harm us. _

_ No harm. _

_ The air is shared. _

_ Thank you.  _ Niall says again.

There’s a faint glow coming from that direction - what Harry assumes must be the city, but what had Niall said? They had  _ no mass _ ?

_ We are energy.  _ The voice is less this time. Just one maybe. Or at least, Harry thinks so. It feels singular, smaller.  _ We can not touch ones like you.  _

_ But how could you know that?  _ Liam thinks.  _ Are there others like us here? _

The air prickles with discomfort for a moment, and Harry winces. Beside him Louis shuffles closer, pressing their sides together. 

_ Others.  _ The voice says.  _ There were others.  _

There’s the feeling of pushing and pulling somehow and they can’t see anything but Harry can sense a channel opening up in the wall before them. 

_ We found them.  _ The voice says.  _ We called them. They came here. They stopped. Released. Ended. We couldn’t keep them in. You are so short. So fleeting. _

Niall pulls them forwards through the channel, huddling together to stay away from the sides, trusting that the aliens won’t suddenly close in and kill them all. Harry isn’t sure it’s the best decision, but he uses all of his willpower to keep his thoughts to himself, to keep his feet moving. They walk for several minutes, silence and sadness colouring the air, and the aliens might not want to prepare them for what they’re about to find but Harry knows what he’s going to see before they stumble over the bodies. There are three of them, and their faces are corroded, pitted, but they’re unmistakably human. Harry grips Niall’s hand tighter. 

_ You killed them.  _ Horror radiates over from Liam and the voices react quickly, desperately. 

_ No. They don’t last long. _

There’s a peace that’s so powerful it’s almost soporific and Harry has to fight to keep his eyes open. When it pulls back, his head stabs with a pain that’s utterly human. 

_ We let them in the current,  _ a voice continues.  _ We let them in the city, our doctors tried to fix their energy but we couldn’t keep it going. You don’t last long. They cried for help and we soothed them.  _

Another rolling wave of calm batters at Harry, threatening to tip him over. He wants to be mad at these creatures for letting these people die. He wants to do something, but how can he be? There’s no air here, nothing they can breathe. And even if there was, the atmosphere burns and there’s no water. Their life is too different to survive here. Too  _ alien.  _

_ Alien.  _ The voices echo in agreement.  _ We grieve with you. _

_ You touched them?  _ Niall questions, examining their twisted faces. 

_ Only after they stopped. We didn’t know what they were so we left them, but then they stopped. Our doctor touched them and they started again, but it was short. After that we could do nothing.  _

Niall nods and the air vibrates.  _ Acceptance. Sadness.  _

_ You are different.  _ The air says, and it’s a different voice, this time Harry’s sure of it. It feels lighter than the others, gentler, and Harry wonders if that means it’s weaker, or younger, or older. 

_ Child.  _ Another voice confirms, and Harry tries his best to mask the embarrassment rushing off him with  _ apology. _

_ Amusement,  _ the air sends back. 

_ Why are you different?  _ The child asks.  _ You are stable. You are lasting. There is something around you, something that protects. You --  _ The voice directs itself, somehow singling Niall out, somehow echoing around him.  _ It’s you. You aren’t one of them. You can escape and still be. _

Escape.  _ Die _ . The two click together in Harry’s head. Escape, dissipate. Released, the voices had said. Because they didn’t understand death the way that humans did. What happens when we stop breathing? Louis had asked. Sickness tightens Harry’s stomach and another battering torrent of tranquility hits him from the aliens. 

_ You won’t let us be sad?  _ Harry asks.

_ We grieve with you. We do not wish to grieve without purpose. You do not need to be sad, so we correct it. The air is shared. _

_ I can see why you stayed on the outskirts,  _ Harry thinks quietly to Louis. He gets a flicker of amusement back.

_ Elders,  _ Louis whispers, and Harry can almost feel the shrug and the eye-roll that comes with it.

Harry wants to ask where his parents are. He wants to ask if they were close. He wants to ask if they can go see them. Or if Louis doesn’t want them to see him like this.

_ I am different,  _ Niall agrees, ignoring their whispers and shattering Harry’s quiet thoughts.  _ I am other.  _

_ What? What? _

_ What? _

Curious voices echo around them and the air feels charged like a summer storm. 

_ Back. Go back,  _ Niall chastens.  _ They can’t survive you.  _

The feeling clears and a gentle apology tingles over Harry’s skin. He tightens his grip on Louis’ hand. 

_ There is no word here for what I am. I am from somewhere else. I do not need this form to survive. That is what I can tell you,  _ Niall says.

_ Acceptance. Gratitude,  _ they send. 

_ Why are you here?  _ The child asks, and a ripple goes through the air as if perhaps the child was being chastened. 

_ We were brought through a portal.  _ Niall stops and sends out a shrug of questioning air. 

A strange, sucking sort of feeling overcomes Harry. He turns sharply and he can’t see Zayn through the thick blue, but he can feel it’s him.

The air rattles with disquiet, fear maybe, apprehension.  _ Stop. Stop. We understand. An anomaly. _

_ We are trying to stop them.  _ Niall sends.  _ To make sure there are no more. _

_ We will help you.  _

Excitement buzzes off Niall.  _ Can you find one for us? _

_We feel them. There will be one soon. Here, inside the city. There are more of them now, they happen more and more. We can take you there._ _We do not like them, they pull at us. They alter the current. They take away forms._

The pressure around them builds, and there’s a roar of a thousand voices vibrating in excitement. It tugs at Harry, it pulls, it pushes, it surrounds, it buries him. Another stream of blood escapes his nose and his spine bows with it. Beside him Louis cries out in pain.

The sensations stop. The air clears. Harry takes a deep breath of nothing. 

_ We will help you.  _ The voices say.

*

They have to walk again. Deeper into the city, and it’s becoming harder and harder for Harry to drag his feet.

_ My mouth feels wrong.  _ Zayn sends.

_ The exposure to the air is dehydrating.  _ Niall says.  _ I’m doing the best I can, but we need to leave here. _

They trudge on. The pressure around them seems to be growing as they go deeper, but the air is a lighter blue with the higher concentration of aliens, and Harry can almost make out the blurry shapes of Zayn and then Liam on the other end of their line. There are no sounds. None at all, and it takes Harry far too long to realize that, because all the buzzing in the air somehow  _ feels  _ like noise. Only once he’s noticed it, he can’t help but feel unsettled every time he places his foot down and the ground is silent.

Waves of calm radiate from the wall of energy surrounding them, forcing down his unease, and it’s only when they reach a sort of clearing, when the aliens are pulling back into a more distant ring around them that Harry realizes just how much fear and pain they were masking. 

_ Niall I can’t- Niall!  _ The words come from Liam, but they could have been Harry, they could have been any of them. 

_ I know.  _ Niall replies. 

Harry stumbles, and he doesn’t know who goes down first, but one by one the five of them fall to their knees. Around them the aliens vibrate.   

_ We can’t survive here much longer _ , Harry realizes, with a sudden stab of fear. The air itself will kill them long before dehydration does. Already his face is starting to itch. 

_ How long can you protect us?  _ Harry asks.

_ Just keep holding on to me.  _ Niall grits out. 

_ The anomaly will be here soon.  _ A voice says.

Beside him, Louis stiffens. 

_ They pull the current. They hurt us. They pull against the sun and the sun’s pull grows weak.  _

_ Your suns pull at the current?  _ Niall says sharply, and Harry does his best to focus on the conversation, to take his mind of the terrifying prospect of being stranded on a world they can’t survive on.

_ Only one. One sun. One current.  _ A voice says. 

_ You have two suns.  _ Liam points out. 

_ But only one pulls the current.  _ The voice says.  _ The sun comes overhead and it pulls and the current flows, but now it pulls less, and where the current stops the air splits.  _

_ The portals.  _ Louis says.

The air stills. The vibrations stop. 

Harry flinches back. The buzzing, the constant calm was bad, but this is so much worse. So much worse. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t know why everything’s just... stopped. 

_ I’m sorry.  _ Louis thinks, turning to him with wide eyes.  _ I was trying not to think. I just- everything hurts and I couldn’t control it! I didn’t want them to hear me! I’m sorry! _

Harry has a second to think,  _ what?  _ Before the alien emotions come battering down. 

There’s fear, and anger, and if Harry had thought the buzzing was bad before it was nothing to this all encompassing fury. His skull is itching and he can feel tears running down his face and his nose is dripping blood down into his mouth. The force presses them down onto the ground, grinding at them with unrelenting pressure. Harry can’t see. He can’t hear, he can’t feel. His body is numb. He can’t breathe. He doesn’t know if he’s holding Niall’s hand anymore, he doesn’t know anything. 

_ WHAT IS THIS.  _ The voices below, and it tears through Harry’s head as easy as tissue paper, leaving nothing but shreds behind. 

There’s a sort of twist and two puffs of air and Harry knows that word.  _ Louis.  _

_ YOU TOOK FROM US. YOU MADE US ONE OF YOU. _

_ Us,  _ Harry thinks,  _ Louis _ . They must recognize his thoughts. They must know who he is.  

_ No!  _ Niall shouts back, but it’s whipped away too fast and it’s coming from the wrong direction and Harry can’t be holding on to him anymore. He looks down at his empty hands with spots dancing in his vision.

_ Oh.  _ Harry thinks dimly. 

_ It wasn’t us! It wasn’t us!  _ Niall’s shouting desperately,  _ he was taken through a portal! It wasn’t us! _

Harry’s skin is itching and his throat is burning and somehow his face is pressed to the ground and he doesn’t know how he got there or what’s going on but the spots are crowding out his vision of the green rock and the air is battering at him and he thinks he can feel his bones creaking. 

_ Please!  _ Niall’s thoughts are racing on the wind, desperate, painful.  _ Please! It wasn’t us! You’ll kill them! You’ll kill them! STOP!  _

_ WE MUST RELEASE! OURS! YOU TOOK FROM US! RELEASE! ESCAPE! _

Harry’s face is pressed to the ground and he grazes his cheek along, trying to turn, to see. There’s a body on the floor beside him.  _ Louis.  _ But he’s across from him, almost too far to reach, and Louis is screaming, writhing. 

_ You can’t release him!  _ Niall shouts desperately from his other side.  _ It won’t work he’ll dissipate. It won’t work! You’ll kill him!  _

Harry can feel himself fading from the pressure, from the lack of oxygen, from everything.  _ I’m going to die here.  _ He thinks with sudden clarity. He crawls a few inches towards Louis and takes a steadying breath, trying to calm himself, and then another, and another. The spots clear some. He takes another breath.

The air smells like home. 

Painfully, achingly, Harry turns his head. 

There’s a portal. A portal hanging in the air. Spewing out life and sound and oxygen.

He watches numbly as the portal starts to pull, dragging the air back out with it. He watches as Liam disappears into it, as Zayn crawls over, as Niall gets dragged relentlessly across the ground towards it. 

_ Stop! You’re killing him!  _ Niall shouts, digging his fingers into the rock to stop himself.  

Harry waits for the portal to take him, but there’s nothing. No pull, no drag. He goes to move himself to crawl, to shuffle. 

Only his body won’t move.

_ Let them go!!!  _ Niall’s screaming now. His thoughts echoing with his voice, pushed through the atmosphere, riding the last of the oxygen and nitrogen and everything organic life needs.  _ Let them go! _

_ The aliens,  _ Harry thinks,  _ they must be stopping us.  _ And now the portal’s flickering brightly, and  _ Liam and Zayn are safe.  _ Which calms Harry, but the oxygen is starting to pull back and the crushing pressure of the aliens is climbing back up and Harry’s body is screaming and his thoughts are screaming and he’s going to die here on another planet and no one will ever believe it. He uses the last of his energy to drag his hand up and grip onto Louis’ leg. He might be dying on an alien world but he doesn’t have to die alone. 

_ LET THEM GO!!!!  _ Niall booms, as the pressure crushes them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter next Sunday? Or maybe I should pick a different day? What day would be best I wonder. Any thoughts welcome :)


	6. If I could reach the stars

_And the planets spin_

_As life begins_

_And above them, Bob watches on_

 

Louis’ thoughts are screaming and it’s breaking Harry apart. He goes to move his hand, to stroke, to try to offer some sort of comfort. _Anything._

His hand won’t move.

It’s locked. Stuck. Harry swivels his head desperately and the portal’s pulsing, glowing, flickering, but Niall’s hand is gripping his shoe and as his brain tries it’s best to process, he finally feels the slow drag of the portal. _They let go. The aliens let go._

In front of him, Louis falls silent.

 _Come on!_ Niall yells.

Harry stares down at him, his brain slow from pain and lack of oxygen. He presses his hand to the ground, pushing as hard as he can, trying to help the pull but he has no purchase, nothing to catch on to, just smooth green rock. Niall grips his other leg and pulls with both hands.

 _Louis! Grab Louis,_ Niall shouts.

He twists his head back. _Yes. Louis._ He can do this. He reaches up with his other hand and grips Louis as high up as he can, catching him at the waist.

And with aching fingers and vision once again starting to blur, Harry _hauls._

 _Louis!_ He can’t tell who's shouting anymore.

The alien slides towards him, rucking up his shirt against the green rock, but Harry will have time to worry about scratches later. They’ll have time, because they’re going to make it. They have to. His chest seizes at the thought. _We will make it,_ he growls. He pulls again, his arms weakening, his chest hurting.

But he can do this, he can. He gathers his strength, coiling his muscles and _pulls._

He slips backwards with a jolt as his hands slip free.

 _No._ Terror sings up through his bones. _Just like before._ This was just like before. The portal had stopped sucking them in, and then they’d fallen through, and then it had closed.

Harry turns his head in blind panic, and they’re so close--closer than he could have hoped, but they aren’t close enough. But then, there’s something… something in the light, something in the portal…

And then the things are moving, and coming closer, and as he squints he can see them all, Zayn, Liam, Niall, all safely surrounded by the bright white glow, waiting, breathing. _They haven’t gone through,_ he realizes with relief, and then guilt, and then hot, prickling panic.

 _Of course not,_ it’s Liam’s voice, sure and confident with only a whisper of fear streaking through.

 _Liam-_ Harry’s thoughts are fading as Liam reaches towards him, reaches past him. And then Liam has caught hold of Louis’s legs, pulling him in closer, and Zayn’s arms reach out to catch Harry by the waist and Niall is tugging them all towards himself, pulling Harry’s arm, Zayn’s shoulder, Liam’s waist, Louis’ leg.

But it’s all too much for Harry’s throbbing head, too much pain, too much panic, it’s too much.

This time when the ground falls away, he feels nothing.

*

They land with a thump that jolts Harry back to consciousness, and the air is sweet, delicious, fresh, _breathable._

The thought stays inside his head where it belongs and he giggles in hysterical elation.

“Niall?” He tries, but his voice is a raspy croak. He giggles at that too.

Beside him Liam is snickering.

“Louis is unconscious,” Zayn squeaks from his left, breaking into peals of laughter. “But he’s alive!”

“Niall!” Harry tries again, alarm warring with relief, battling hysteria. He laughs again, tears trickling down his face. “What’s wrong with us.”

He twists just enough to see Niall grinning from ear to ear, but his eyes are tight. “It’s the oxygen. Our bodies need to get used to it again. We’ve been oxygen starved, it’ll pass.”

Harry nods, swallowing down another giggle. They’re in a pile on the floor, but Harry can’t work out where. The ceiling is a bright blue sky, so they must be outside, and the floor is painfully hard concrete, so not where they’d left from. Some sort of courtyard.

“We aren’t in Kansas anymore,” Liam sing-songs beside him.

“Weren’t we in Colorado?” Zayn chokes out, and that sets them all off laughing harder.

Harry takes a few measured breaths, slowly clawing back his control as they lie there, breathing, recovering. The urge to laugh is almost completely gone when the all-encompassing pain suddenly rams into Harry. His skin is on fire, his mouth is parched, his chest is throbbing, his head is aching, his bones hurt. He hisses sharply and isn’t surprised when he hears an echoing whimper beside him.

“Louis?” He turns his head but the alien is still unconscious, and there are tacks of blood leading down from his nose. “Is Louis ok?” He asks Niall instead, stretching out with his hand and pressing his fingers to Louis’ reddened skin. He sags in relief when he’s rewarded with a strong heartbeat.

“I think so,” Niall replies. “He’ll need rest and time but he should be fine. Just give him a moment.”

Harry’s pretty sure he couldn’t move anyway, so he hums his agreement. They stare at the sky some more, getting used to their aching bodies until Louis finally starts to stir.

“Lou?” Harry whispers, his dry mouth cracking.

“Yup,” comes the quiet reply.

“Good,” Harry’s chest unclenches.

A few more minutes pass before Niall starts to fidget. “We need to move,” he grits out.

“It hurts,” Zayn snaps.

“I know,” Niall sighs. “I protected you as much as I could from the air over there but you’ll be sore for a while. We can’t stay here though, I know it hurts but we have to go.”

He gestures with his hand and Harry finally cranes his head around to look. They _are_ in a courtyard. He squints at the chalk marks on the ground and the empty desks behind wide glass windows set into the sandy brown stone walls. Or more accurately, they’re in a _playground._

“Shit,” Liam mutters behind him.

“Is it a school day?” Harry asks urgently. “Have they broken up for summer? When do kids go to school these days? Niall!”

“I don’t know when kids go to school, I never was one. It’s a Wednesday though,” Niall says, scrunching up his face. “Wednesday evening in Denver, unless we aren’t in Denver anymore… in England it would be Thursday morning-” Niall squints, “around 2am.”

The five of them stare up at the unusually bright midday sun.

“You sure about that?” Zayn asks quietly. “I know I’ve not been here long, but usually at night it’s darker.”

“I guess we aren’t in England then, or Denver,” Harry says slowly, swallowing thickly around his dry mouth. “What do you think Liam?”

“You _are_ in England and it’s nearly lunch time,” a confident voice pipes up, “and it’s _Friday._ ”

The five of them jump in painful unison. _Shit,_ they’ve been seen _._ It’s a girl’s voice, young, curious. Harry decides to keep his mouth shut and leave the talking to Niall - he’s not exactly been a paragon of subtlety these past few days, so presumably he’s been caught before. He’s bound to know what to do.

“Friday?” Niall says sharply, twisting around.

The rest of them shuffle more slowly and Harry suspects they’re all just trying to turn as painlessly as possible. Beside him Liam is grumbling under his breath about magic, but then Liam always has been a bit weird. They’ll need some water soon, and Harry isn’t sure how long any of them will manage without washing their skin. He’s still prickling uncomfortably all over.

“You came through a window,” the girl continues, looking at them with curious brown eyes. “You’re lucky there’s no one in the history classroom this period.”

“We--” Niall glances over to the empty classroom and then shakes his head, his mouth a tight line.

“How did you do it?” She frowns down at Niall. “Did you make the window yourself? Is it a tear in space? Where did you come from? You’re a mess, you know.”

Niall shrugs.

“Are you physicists? You don’t look like physicists, are you students? Are you from a parallel world? Are you from the future?”

“Umm, I’m working on a degree in sound engineering?” Harry says slowly, trying to get his head around all the questions. He glances at Liam who shrugs.

The girl sags, a look of disappointment crossing her face.

“Sorry?” Harry tries again.

She shakes her head, looking gloomy. “I used to have this dream that time travelers would fall out of a portal in front of me and we’d go on an adventure. I never thought it would actually happen. And now you’re here and you’re just--confused music students. You aren’t even aliens.”

Harry feels sort of guilty, and then he feels sort of indignant, because they’ve travelled to another world and back and somehow that isn’t good enough? They nearly _died._ And it’s not like they don’t have aliens, they’ve met aliens, they’ve talked to aliens, Louis and Zayn _are_ aliens.

He turns his head just in time to catch the aliens in question exchanging an extremely unsubtle glance.

The girl frowns and stares between the two, “...are you aliens?” She asks slowly.

The four of them look at Niall who shrugs again, confirming Harry’s suspicion that this isn’t the first time he’s been caught and he isn’t particularly concerned. When no directions appear forthcoming, the four of them share a questioning look and Liam nods, which seems to be good enough for Zayn, who turns to face her.

“I am,” Zayn says carefully, raising a slow hand. Beside him Louis cautiously does the same.

“Human,” Liam holds up his own hand and Harry nods in agreement.

“And you?” She asks, her face glowing with excitement as she turns to Niall.

“I’m something else,” Niall says, looking more troubled by the second. “Today’s Friday? You said?”

“I have a particular interest in physics,” the girl sniffs primly, ignoring the question, “and physics suggests that inter-dimensional travel should be entirely possible, and aliens, so I’m not surprised.”

“Hmm,” Niall frowns harder, staring up at the sky.

“I thought you might be better dressed though,” She says.

Harry takes a moment to centre himself, his head still throbbing uncomfortably and he’s certain that there are a hundred things he should be thinking about if he could only get his focus off his aching, itching body. The girl’s hair is in tight braids running over her head and her skin is dark, and she’s standing in what is obviously a school uniform, with black tights, a brown skirt and blazer and a light blue shirt. She looks to be about fifteen, and her accent is a level of British upper class that makes Harry think _money._

It’s no wonder she isn’t impressed with their ragged band. Their shorts are filthy and Zayn’s shirt must have been ripped almost clean off when they were being sucked through their first portal because it’s hanging by a single sleeve. They’ve a myriad of injuries and torn clothing and they probably hadn’t looked all that good _before_ the great alien debacle. Not after a transatlantic flight and five different airports in four days, and Liam’s got embarrassingly patchy beard scruff growing in that Harry must remind himself to tease him about when they’re all feeling a bit less delicate.

What Harry really needs is a cold-ish shower, a change of clothing, some sort of disgusting fast food and a soft bed. He’ll settle for just moving off the hard floor and some water for now though.

“You really need to move from here if you don’t want to get caught, and you probably shouldn't get caught if you’re aliens,” the girl says finally, interrupting his thoughts, “the warning bell is about to go for lunch. You’re lucky I had a free, anyone could have found you.”

“And you aren’t _anyone?_ ” Zayn mutters.

Harry looks over at her again, taking in her sharp, intelligent eyes, folded arms and squared shoulders.

“No,” she says. “I’m not.”

*

They drag themselves to a classroom that the girl - _Nathalie_ apparently - has declared safe for use, and slump down against the low wooden desks. They’d managed to go via a water fountain on the way, and Harry’s tongue is still heavy and his lips are dry but he’s drunk enough water to ease the throbbing in his head a little, and he’s scrubbed at his arms and washed his hands. The itch is fainter now, at least. Louis is hobbling a bit, but he’d made no sound as Harry had helped him along, and he isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Still, at least Louis is still breathing and not trapped on an inhospitable planet being literally crushed by the weight of emotions.

There’s no talking as they shuffle along though.

“Do you need first aid?” Nathalie asks when they’re all settled.

The rest of them turn to look at Niall.

“We shouldn’t,” Niall replies, still frowning. “We’ve probably some skin and lung irritation, there might be some itching and coughing, and we’ll probably ache for a few days, but nothing permanent, and nothing you can do about it. We’ll need a shower and a change of clothes though.”

“It’s just that his back has bled through his t-shirt and you four have blood on your face,” Nathalie barrels on, pointing at Louis and then at Harry, Liam and Zayn.

Harry brings his hand up to poke at the blood he remembers dripping from his nose and glances over at Liam and Zayn. He can’t bring himself to look at Louis this time. It’d been his fault, the scratches, but the alternative had been much worse. Still, he can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt that’s quickly drowned out by a tide of worry. Louis could have broken bones, he could be bleeding inside right now.

“Minor injuries,” Niall shrugs.

Harry holds back a shiver. _Minor injuries._ They’d all seen the bodies of the poor people who’d been sucked through without a Niall to help them. They’d have suffocated first, probably. Hopefully.

“Are you sure?” He snaps, worry making him harsh.

Niall nods.

“Even Louis?”

“I think so,” Niall nods again. “He’s walking and he’s breathing ok.”

Harry shakes his head and presses his lips together. For all they knew Niall might have x-ray vision, he might be able to smell broken bones, he might be able to _hear_ that Louis’ body is working fine. Or, he could know absolutely nothing about human physiology and be making it all up.

Nathalie doesn’t look convinced either, but Harry sees the moment when she decides to let it go for now. “But where _did_ you come from?” She asks, wrapping her arms around herself. “You said Denver, before?”

“Colorado,” Zayn says quietly.

“A portal from here to Colorado?”

“No, from Colorado to another planet and then from there to here. Where is here exactly?” Niall asks.

“Berkshire, England. Did the two aliens come from that planet?” She fires back, dropping her arms to her side and squaring her shoulders.

She’s getting her head around it, Harry thinks. Moment by moment. He knows because he’s still doing the same.

“Yes. What time is it?” Niall snaps.

“12:17pm. Do the aliens look like us on their planet?” Nathalie returns.

“No. How did you know about portals?”

“I don’t. Why did the portal open here?”

Harry stops trying to keep up as they go back and forth, Niall’s sour mood clashing with Nathalie’s sharp curiosity, but he does learn a few small facts: one, Nathalie’s mother works at AWE, some sort of physics research facility and she doesn’t actually work on inter-dimensional travel or anything that Harry suspects is remotely useful, but she’s interested enough to have been teaching her daughter about it. Two, Niall is no better at explaining why portals happen the second time around and he still doesn’t seem to know what’s going on. And three, they have accidentally landed in the middle of an all-girls Catholic school and things will probably not go well for them if five, flushed, ragged men in their early twenties are found hiding out here.

“I have a question?” Liam jumps in, holding up his hand.

“What?” Niall says tightly.

“How did we end up in England? We didn’t walk that far. Was that why it took so much longer? Because we had to travel here?”

“Trust me Liam, if you’d walked from Denver to Berkshire you’d know about it.” Niall snaps, and then sags, looking a little guilty. “Sorry. I just don’t know. Portals tear through folds in space and time. We’re lucky we’re in the same decade, a day is nothing.”

They ponder this in silence, and something tight and worried sets up residence in Harry’s chest. “It’s lucky the hoard of aliens didn’t get sucked through with us,” he says finally, in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood and stop his panic before it really takes off.

“A brand-new crop of naked perfect people in a Catholic secondary school,” Liam joins in, managing a weak grin.

“Naked?” Nathalie asks curiously, reminding Harry that they have company. _Underaged_ company.

“Oh uh, no? No one’s naked I never said naked I‘m certainly not naked, I’ve never been naked. Ever. And we- umm,” Liam blushes.

Nathalie shakes her head in bemusement. “If you say so. Anyway, I think the best thing to do is to get you cleaned up, we can work out the rest later,” she shrugs and wrinkles her nose. “I’m going to go and find a first aid kit and some clothes for you, you smell like a sweaty fruit salad, did you know? Stay here.”

Harry tries to breathe slowly as she leaves, noting with a start that she’s right -- the pineapple smell is clinging to their clothes, their skin. It’s all too much, somehow, and there’s something else, something that doesn’t quite seem right, and it’s not just Niall’s terrible mood. It might be the hours they’d somehow managed to miss, or the painful stinging of his skin. Or the fact that they were on a different planet less than thirty minutes ago. Or it might be... something else--

“So, we’re really back?” Liam asks cautiously, echoing the thoughts that Harry hadn’t known how to voice.

“Looks like it,” Niall replies.

“And none of the aliens came through with us?” Harry asks.

“They know to stay away from the portals now,” Zayn jumps in quietly. “We always thought they were a sort of urban legend before. They popped up so rarely and no-one really believed in them. I guess they’ll believe now.”

“And the aliens just let us go? I mean Louis--” Harry trails off. “They didn’t want to let go of him.”

He turns to stare at Louis, suddenly wondering who the being had been that had recognised him. Did it know Louis? Were they related? Had Louis nearly been killed by a friend? Or worse, family? Louis’ lips are pressed firmly together as he leans against a desk, staring resolutely at the floor.

“I told them to let go. They let him go,” Niall shrugs.

“And now we’re back?” Harry turns away again, making a mental note to come back to it, to make sure that he’s alright.

“Now we’re back.” Niall nods.

They pause for a minute, pondering that. Harry still can’t help the unease tightening his chest, and he really, really wants to scrub the smell off his skin, even more than the itch. Also, he’s fairly certain that he won’t be eating pineapple again - _ever_.

“But wasn’t it all just a bit too… easy?” Liam asks finally.

Zayn snorts. “You call that easy? We barely made it out alive.”

“But we did make it out,” Harry says slowly. “We only survived because Niall kept the air off us, and Niall knew how to find the aliens and the portal, and Niall got the aliens to let us go, and Niall -- Niall?”

He looks over as the man in question suddenly jumps up from his perch on a desk. There’s a resigned, hard look on his face that Harry’s not seen before, and he know’s it means trouble before Niall even opens his mouth. He’s pushed too far, he must have. He hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation, but it was there all the same, colouring his words.

“And now I’m afraid, Niall has to go,” Niall says.

Harry’s stomach drops. “I wasn’t suggesting, I don’t want-- Where are we going?” He asks desperately.

“Not we. Just me. You’re staying here lads.”

 _Shit._ The confirmation makes Harry’s head throb even more than it already is. He hadn’t meant it like that. Yes, Niall knew far more than them and had abilities that they didn’t understand, but Harry hadn’t meant to imply that Niall -- He didn't even know what he hadn’t meant to imply.

“Very funny,” Liam snorts.

“Absolutely. It’s been fun, please try to stay safe,” Niall says, tugging his ripped shirt straight and shaking out his shoulders.

“You’re not serious?” Harry shakes his head. The tightness in his chest joining forces with a sudden twist of his stomach. “I didn’t mean it. I mean, I know it’s not your fault, I didn’t mean to imply that. Niall you’re not serious?”

“I’m afraid I am,” Niall says, heading towards the door and resolutely ignoring Harry’s panicked grab for him.

“Wait, what?!” Liam jumps up with alarm. “You can’t just go! We _need_ you! You need _us_!”

“I can, and I have to,” Niall says, turning back to face them now that he’s out of range of Harry’s desperate hands, “there’s far too much to be done and absolutely no time whatsoever to do it and I can’t be worrying about you four whilst I do it. Sorry lads.”

“But we found the first portal!” Liam splutters.

“And the second, _and_ the third.” Harry points out, “actually we found all of them. Please Niall, I didn’t mean it like that. I _didn’t_.”

Niall sags a little. “I know you didn’t Harry, that’s not what this is about. Look, you don’t understand, there’s no time.”

“Then perhaps you’d better explain it to us.” Liam snaps, pain and panic tightening his voice.

“There’s no time.” Niall snaps back.

“Perhaps you’d better keep it down,” someone hisses from the doorway.

The five turn to stare in disturbing synchronization; Nathalie’s back, and she’s bought with her a blonde haired girl, several armfuls of clothes, and a green first aid box.

“There’s. No. Time,” Niall says coldly.

Nathalie freezes in the doorway.

“Well then make time,” another voice spits, and it’s such a painful rasp that Harry doesn’t realise for a moment that it’s Louis, and when he does it occurs to him that the alien hasn’t spoken since confirming that he was indeed alive. “Niall, they nearly killed us, we’ve been dragged through different worlds, we’ve found portals for you, we’ve obeyed you blindly every step of the way. You told us we couldn’t go back and we’re trusting you. You won’t tell us what you are, you won’t tell us what you know, you won’t tell us what’s going on and now we’re hurt and confused and you’re leaving!?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drag any of you into this, please understand that.” Niall takes a step back, shaking his head. “I just don’t have time for this right now.”

“You didn’t drag me into this Niall, there was a portal, _physics_ dragged me into it.” Louis barks, his voice a painful growl, “and you’re going to tell us what’s going on so we can work it out together like we should have been doing all along!”

“I can’t! Louis please, I can’t. I know you’re hurt and you miss your own world but I have to fix this one!”

“And how do we know you’re even going to fix this one? How do you know so much? How do we know you aren’t the one causing all this?” Louis grinds out, shaking and red-faced. “Maybe Harry didn’t mean it, but someone has to say it. It’s all happening around you Niall!”

Harry takes a step towards him, and then stops. It’s not the easiest decision, but as soon as he’s planted himself squarely in front of the door he knows it’s the right one. Louis’ right, they need to know what’s going on.  Liam steps up beside him and Harry nods at the show of solidarity.

Across from them, Niall’s eyes harden.

“Niall?” Harry asks quietly, “we’re not blaming you, but you need to tell us what’s going on.”

“I can’t.” Niall snaps.

“Yes you can,” Liam demands. “Tell us, or you aren’t getting out of here.”

“I can’t!” Niall shouts back.

“Well you’re going to.” Louis snaps.

“You won’t be able to deal with it!”

The oxygen starved echo in Harry’s head jumps in to force a hysterical bark of laughter out of his throat. _You can’t handle the  truth._ He bites back, looking around the group. Liam’s eyes are blazing, and Louis is still shaking, but it’s Zayn who catches his eye. Quiet, reserved, sensible Zayn who’s stalking towards Niall with his fists balled at his sides.

“We’ve just gone through a portal, moved between bodies, nearly been choked to death, we’ve been crushed by emotions and some of us have lost our families forever. What exactly do you think we can’t handle Niall?!” Zayn yells, and Harry doesn’t think he’s ever heard the man shout in anger before but it’s a day of new things.

“Stop shouting!” Nathalie snaps, finally jumping into the fray.

“Just tell us Niall, we almost died,” Louis growls, as Zayn catches a handful of Niall’s ruined shirt.

“We almost died,” Zayn hisses, dragging Niall towards him, their noses almost touching, and perhaps it’s the fact that it’s _Zayn_ who’s the one being so aggressive that shocks the words out of Niall’s mouth.

Niall’s eyes go hard and cold. “And in 11 hours we’ll all be dead,” he hisses back.

The room goes silent, and there’s a moment of frozen confusion before Niall suddenly rears back, his eyes wide as he pulls out of Zayn’s startled grip.

“I’m sorry,” Niall whispers, shaking his head desperately. “I didn’t mean to tell you like that, I’m so sorry. I’m trying to stop it. I’m _going_ to stop it.”

“Niall, what are you talking about?” Liam says quietly.

“I don’t-- I-- _Shit,_ ” he shakes his head again.

The ticking of a clock is loud in the corner and the faint echo of the school having its lunch break trickles through the door. Harry almost tells Niall to stop, almost asks him not to tell them. The fight has washed out of him, leaving him pale and shaken and almost certain that he doesn’t want to know.

“The instability, the portals. It’s coming from the sun, it’s all coming from the sun,” Niall says finally.

“What--” Harry coughs to clear the lump from his throat, ignoring the voice in his head telling him not to ask. “What are you talking about?”

“The sun’s going to burn out.”

“Oh,” Harry says.

“But it can’t. It’s the sun.” Liam shakes his head.

There’s a faint buzzing starting in Harry’s ears, and either he’s trembling or there’s an earthquake happening because the room seems to be moving in strange, jerking motions. It’s been too many shocks in a small space of time, he thinks dazedly.

“It’ll start happening any minute now, it should have started already,” Niall says.

Harry shakes his head.

“But the sun can’t burn out,” Liam says blankly.

“It’ll start getting colder.”

Harry wraps his arms around himself. His skin still hurts, he notes absently. Everything hurts really. In a sort of pricking, aching, _cold_ sort of way. “But it’s the sun,” he says.

“The temperature will drop slowly, then the light.”

Harry wraps his arms around himself tighter.

“But it’s the _sun,_ ” Liam parrots.

“And then we’ll just have until the trapped heat on the surface of the earth runs out.”

Harry shivers.

“I don’t believe you,” Nathalie jumps in abruptly, shaking her head.

“It’s cold,” Harry whispers.

“Because it’s Britain and you’re hardly wearing any clothes!” She snaps.  

Niall takes an aborted step towards her. “I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t believe you.” She shakes her head again. “Why should I believe you?”

“And there’s nothing you can do?” A new voice says doubtfully, and Harry had forgotten that they’d picked up a new helper along the way.

“I’m trying,” Niall says quietly.

“I don’t believe it.” Nathalie tilts her chin up.

Niall shakes his head.

“So that’s just it? We have 11 hours and then boom, no more sun? Everybody dies?” Liam asks numbly.

Harry shivers. There’s a sort of roaring in his ears, and he isn’t really sure if he’s feeling anything at all, if maybe this is all a big joke, if Niall’s lying or kidding because it’s not possible that humanity’s going to end in 11 hours. That’s for films and books and stories. That’s not real life. Things like that don’t happen in real life. The sun is the sun.

“I need to go,” Niall says, “I can still fix this.”

“Do you know how?” The blonde girl says sharply, and she would be the most clear headed, Harry thinks vaguely, because she’s not actually seen the portals, and for all she knows this could all be some elaborate, fruit-scented prank.

There’s a pause, and Harry doesn’t know if the others are holding their breaths too but his lips must be turning blue when Niall speaks again.

“No,” Niall says.

Harry’s bones are hollow, static, just like his head. He probably still has emotions, he thinks, and they’re on the inside, where they should be, but he can’t tell what they mean anymore.

He believes Niall.

He wishes he didn’t.

“Huh.” Harry stares at the floor. “I was looking forward to August.“

“What happens in August?” Louis says blankly.

“Nothing really,” Harry stares at the floor some more. It’s stone and there are cracks in it. “I just thought the world would last a bit longer than the 30th of June.”

The room is silent.

“23rd June,” Nathalie whispers, finally.

“The 30th,” Niall frowns.

“No, 23rd. It’s Katelyn’s birthday tomorrow,” the blonde girl says firmly.

“Who’s Ka--” Harry shakes his head. It wouldn’t have mattered _before_ the world ended, it certainly wouldn’t matter after.

The clock ticks away in the corner.

“Wait, no. It’s the 30th today,” Niall jumps up suddenly, his eyes wide and urgent. “It _is_. It’s the 30th.”

Something catches in Harry’s throat, something heavy and solid that slides down into his chest and starts to inflate. He doesn’t know if the word’s going to end, he doesn’t know where they’ve been, he doesn’t know why these things have been happening. But he does know one thing - it was the 29th when they left. Definitely, completely, 100%. It was.

“It’s the 23rd,” Nathalie says slowly, fiddling in her pocket and then holding up her phone.

“It’s the 23rd?” Harry asks desperately, a hesitant flicker of hope licking across his chest.

“It’s the 23rd,” the blonde girl parrots with wide eyes, showing her own phone screen, the date in bright, bold, beautiful, letters.

“It’s the 23rd,” Niall stammers, a manic grin creeping slowly across his face, “we didn’t go forwards in time. It’s the 23rd.”

Hope turns to fear and rushes straight into hysteria and Harry for the third time that afternoon finds himself fighting back bubbling, uncontrollable laughter.

“We didn’t go forwards in time,” Niall stammers again, “we went back.”


	7. Curiosity killed the cat

_ But our Bob, on the whole _

_ Is a curious soul _

_ Who wants to see them grow _

 

“We went back,” Harry parrots, a desperate bubble of relieved laughter escaping his lips. ”So we aren’t all doomed?”

“We have a week,” Niall says stonily, “it’s better than just a few hours, but yeah. A week.”

“Shit,” Liam breathes. 

“Ok. Ok, well then you’re just going to have to explain everything Niall, and we’re going to work it out,” Louis croaks. 

Nathalie and the new girl come forwards, shutting the door behind them and Nathalie places the first aid kit carefully on the table. “Just as soon as you’re all cleaned up,” she says firmly.

*

They stay hidden in their room until the rest of the school children have gone back to their classes, resting and slowly cleaning themselves up. The patching up goes as expected -- Louis yelps as the scratches on his back are cleaned and none of them are particularly happy with the aloe vera that the girls are determined to coat them with, but Harry sighs with relief when the gel starts to work on his skin.

The new girl is called Perrie, apparently, and she seems slightly less trusting than Nathalie, but then, she’s presumably taking it on faith that they really did fall out of a portal. She’d brought them a bucket of water - and from where, Harry has no idea - and had hastily turned her back with Nathalie as the five of them stripped off their shirts and scrubbed as much of the burning air off themselves as possible.

“We have no trousers, so I’m afraid your shorts will have to stay,” Nathalie says bruskly, after the initial wound tending is done.

Niall pokes curiously through the heap of clothing and selects a pale blue lady’s polo-shirt with a dark blue logo that must be part of a sports kit. Zayn and Liam manage to find basic light blue button downs and Harry reluctantly pulls on a navy-blue polo-neck that clings to him in all the wrong places. He tugs ineffectually at the tight cotton. It’s better than being naked at least.

Louis hesitantly picks up the last polo-neck and then puts it down in favour of a brown blazer. “I think I’ll leave that off for now,” he says, wincing as Harry helps him pull it on. The scratches on his back have been covered in gauze and bound to him with bandages stretching white and stark across his chest.

Harry thinks it might be overkill, but he isn’t going to be stingy with the medical supplies when Louis’ health is at stake. 

Overall, it’s a nervous, slightly despondent and certainly traumatised bunch that Nathalie sneaks out of the school several hours later. They’ve decided to leave Perrie behind to her classes, but when Liam weakly protests that they should  _ both  _ be at school, Nathalie assures them that she’s actually “sixteen and in sixth-form and I can leave anytime that I want to.” So they dutifully troop along behind her, quickly passing the bold entrance sign bearing the name ‘ _ St. Helen’s Catholic Academy for Young Ladies. _ ’

*

Harry stares up at the high ceilings of Nathalie’s airy Edwardian terrace house. Something about it seems off, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. 

“It’s like a museum in here,” Liam hisses, and  _ yes, that’s it _ . There’s nothing about the place that screams  _ home _ . Nothing to make it a place to live in, to rest and relax and laugh. 

He ignores a pang of sadness for the girl as he pokes around the living room. The sofas are cream with gold filigree around the edges and a bit fussy for Harry’s tastes, but there’s a thick light-brown pile-rug that Liam and Zayn have sunk gratefully onto. He looks over at Louis who is aiming a calculating look towards a cream coloured armchair -- the only thing in the room that really looks used. Louis obviously decides that it passes muster because he cautiously eases himself into it, shrugging out of the blazer he’d been wearing and leaving his upper half clothed only in bandages. 

“I think you’ll need to get some proper clothes,” Nathalie says, coming out of a door that must lead to the kitchen and handing around steaming mugs of tea in true English fashion. “I’ve check my things and mom’s but we don’t really have much that will fit you. There’s a charity shop just down the road though, you could pick something up there.”

“I’ll go,” Niall jumps in, accepting his tea with a small nod. Harry spins to where the man is hovering cautiously by the door. 

“Running away again?” He asks nastily, giving in to the spike of anger that suddenly appears in his chest. 

He takes his own tea gratefully, his mouth still uncomfortably dry from the air on the alien planet. His eyes are starting to itch as well, and he isn’t sure if it’s another legacy of the burning air or just from tiredness.

“No.” Niall squares his shoulders and pulls himself together. “ _ No.  _ Not this time, but I seem to be the least hurt and I have the most money so it makes sense. You four can stay and shower and by the time you’re done I’ll be back with something for you to wear.”

“No,” Harry says firmly, surprising himself again. It’s a good plan, only-- “I’m coming with you,” he finishes. “You need someone to help you carry things and I don’t think anyone should be going out alone.”

Niall frowns. “I’m just going down the street Harry, what do you think is going to happen?”

“Even so.” Harry shrugs. He isn’t really sure himself what he’s talking about, but being out of time has left him with a strange, ominous feeling permanently lodged in his gut and he’s decided to listen to it. 

“Fine,” Niall relents with a shrug. You can help me pick them out. 

“That too,” Harry agrees. 

Liam grins weakly from his place on the rug. “Better not let him, Niall, we’ll end up in leopard print leggings.”

Harry tries his best to seem playfully offended, but his body is still aching and his mouth is dry again and it’s all just a bit too much.

“You’ll be back soon though, right?” Louis quietly rasps from his armchair. 

Harry nods, picking up the blazer that he’d discarded and the superfluous extra polo-shirt that Louis had accidentally carried back with them. “Ten minutes.”

*

Unfortunately for Harry, he’s not taken into account the ‘Niall effect.’

“Niall, come on, we need to check the map,” he whines as he waits not-so-patiently to get his phone back so he can take another look at the directions. He should probably consider himself lucky that the damn thing hadn’t been destroyed or lost during the last portal debacle, but if he thinks about it too much he might start to suspect that Niall had magicked it out of thin air again and that’s just not worth the headache. He spares a thought for their abandoned things in Colorado, but presumably, Niall will sort it out when the time comes, and it hasn’t even technically happened yet, so what’s the use in worrying? He kicks at the pavement pointlessly. He’d been offered a  _ shower _ and instead, he’d decided to go with Niall. What was  _ wrong _ with him?

“Just a minute mate, this is important.”

“Well then tell me what you’re doing.”

“Checking the weather,” Niall replies glibly.

Harry grumbles to himself as he stands. He’s got his mug of tea still in hand because damn it if he’s going to give up any possible comfort at this point. He’s also got the rest of the stolen clothes that Nathalie had picked up -- the ones that Louis had rejected --  which apparently had come from the school’s lost property box. Harry had tried to suggest that she return them but she’d put her foot down for some reason. “They’ve been there for the whole month I’ve been here. Just take them to the charity shop, at least someone might benefit.” She’d said. 

So Harry had agreed to bring the blazer and polo-shirt that Louis had discarded, and he’d at least felt a bit better at the state of the house --  Nathalie and her mom had moved to town a little over a month ago, so it stood to reason that it didn’t feel that ‘lived in’ just yet.

“Niall seriously,” he huffs. “We’ve been standing here for ten minutes, someone’s going to spot us and ask why we’re wearing the uniform of an all-girls school.”

“It’s been three minutes,” Niall says absently, “and this is important, I think there’s another portal coming.”

“Another?” Harry raises his eyebrows. “Isn’t it a bit soon for that? How come no one’s ever mentioned this before? Surely if they happened that often we’d know about it?”

Niall shakes his head, “it’s getting worse.”

He hands the phone back and Harry stares at him in nervous silence for a beat before they start on again. He takes a sip of tea to pass the time. “But they travel through time,” he says at last, “if they’re so common now, wouldn’t we know about them? Because they’d have already happened?”

Niall squints at him. “There’s an awful lot of  _ past _ for them to open up into Harry. Also, quite a lot of space too.”

Harry deflates.

“Well then how are we here?” He asks eventually, gesturing wildly with his still-mostly-full tea and handful of clothes, and trying to give off the impression of someone who’s travelled into the past by only a single week and has somehow managed to land in his home country. 

He must pull it off somehow because Niall sighs and nods. “Well that’s the thing, isn’t it. They  _ are _ happening more frequently, but only within this week.”

Harry tries to get his head around that. So portals that travel in time and space but only around the last 7 days or so? That seems… unlikely. “But then why  _ this  _ week?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

They start walking again after that, and Harry tries once more to ponder time travel, portals, and the universe, but he’s having a seriously hard time getting his head around it.

He’s deeply relieved when they reach the CRUK charity shop and finally have something else to think about. He’s less relieved when he peers through the window; there are racks of used clothes, old hats, toys that have long since stopped being anyone’s favourite- and a heart-stoppingly familiar shock of blonde hair.

“Niall?” Harry says slowly, a twist of apprehension tightening his gut.

“In here Harry,” Niall says, holding the door open. 

“No, Niall,” Harry says shakily, pointing as the blonde hair comes closer, clearly heading towards the door.

“What?” Niall frowns. 

“Niall!” Harry darts forwards, tugging the man roughly away as an identical blonde head comes pottering through the door. “Niall run!” Harry twists in blind panic and hurles the tea, and then after a moment, the clothes in his other hand directly into  _ other  _ Niall’s face. 

And then he takes Niall’s hand once more and runs.

His fingers are digging into Niall’s wrist as he pulls him down the street, dodging around a dog walker, a jogger, a young couple-- And then there’s a panicked moment when he barely manages to skirt around an elderly lady, but then there’s a dark alley beside her and he darts in, dragging Niall desperately behind him.

“Well that was interesting,” Niall says calmly.

“What-- You-- I--” Harry pants. 

“You know, I actually remember that now.” Niall nods. “I did not appreciate it. That mug landed on my foot. Still, at least it explains where the clothes came from.”

“And you didn’t think to say!?” Harry grinds out. “We could have been seen! The universe could have exploded!”

There’s a long pause before Niall finally opens his mouth. “What?” Niall’s looking at him blankly, and Harry is struck once again by the desperate desire to have chosen to stay and shower instead of going on this pointless excursion.

“I saw it in a film,” he says finally. “If you touch a past version of yourself the universe explodes. Or you stop existing. Or the timeline gets messed up or something.” 

Niall nods. “Oh right.”

_ Shit.  _ Harry’s chest seizes and he definitely should have gone for the shower option because he’s probably going to die from a time travel induced heart attack in an alleyway. 

“No, there’s nothing like that,” Niall says. 

“Oh.” Harry slumps.

“Don’t worry Harry, I’d already know if we’d met ourselves because I’d remember it. I should have recognised you though, I’m just a little bad with human faces.” 

Harry blinks at that, taking in the full ramifications “So what, then everything is fixed? It has to happen because we knew it happened? Because you remember it?”

Niall frowns for a moment, “not exactly.”

“Then what?” Harry says, the hysteria starting to build up, “You remember the clothes, so it must have happened before we even left. But then, if everything we do this week has already happened, how can we change anything? How can anything we do this week actually matter? And if we can’t change anything then why are we even bothering to try and fix the portals? Aren’t we all just doomed?” Harry feels cold and shivery,  _ and it’s just one shock after another, isn’t it?  _ He thinks dully.  

“No. No, ok, listen,” Niall says, more gently this time. “Time isn’t a line, and it’s not a tree either. This universe, it’s more like… Like a lattice. Like that mesh wire that they use to fence in chickens, you know the stuff? It’s all crisscross patterns and it branches a million times and then joins back together. Time’s like that. The universe is like that. Our memories follow a specific path, and we belong to that path, but sometimes there’s a split, and instead of making two permanent versions of everything it’s just sort of like a temporary bubble, and then the mesh joins back up again and you just end up feeling a bit strange, like there’s a version of you out there who hadn’t made that decision.”

“The universe is wire mesh,” Harry says blankly. 

“You must have things you don’t quite remember? Gaps in your memory? Things that seemed like they happened to someone else? That’s because in some ways, they  _ did.  _ Only the universe needs things to be as simple as possible, so whenever the branches occur it just heals itself by joining them back together and your mind just sort of-- deals with it. Averted disasters, near misses, every time your head spins and you feel like you’ve just missed something.” He shakes his head. “Well, most likely you  _ did.  _ See, I remember seeing you there. But I also remember not seeing you there.”

“But you were wearing the clothes,” Harry mumbles, “the first time we met you, you were wearing the clothes.”

“I was.” Niall nods, placing a careful hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Feels like a long time ago now doesn’t it?”

Harry nods and smiles weakly.

“Almost feels like it didn’t happen.”

“Yeah,” Harry whispers.

“Like the memories belong to someone else.”

Harry’s blood chills. “But you were always wearing those clothes.”

“Maybe I was,” Niall nods. “Or maybe I wasn’t. All we know is that the possibility of me wearing something else has collapsed. This is the timeline now, and the memories you might have had of those other clothes are gone. The timeline reasserts itself, it always does.”

*

Harry feels ill as he walks back, and sort of hollow, like he’s mourning all the versions of him that no longer exist. Niall tries to insist that it’s not like that -- that there isn’t a version of him that’s gone, he just doesn’t remember a few things. It doesn’t help though because Harry can’t stop thinking about what else might have happened? What other memories might he be expunging without even knowing it? What might he have lost without ever knowing there was anything there to lose?

He also feels a bit like Niall has lied to him because hadn’t Niall also said that they can’t have met their past selves because they’d remember it? So that would make the future fixed, and not like the whole collapsed bubble theory? They can’t both be true, surely?

He shelves the thoughts for a time when they make him feel less sick and carefully readjusts the bags he’s carrying. They’d visited the pharmacy after buying their clothes, and managed to pick up some more bandages and aloe vera. Still, the bag is irritating the still-delicate skin of his hands, and he hands them gratefully to Nathalie when they finally arrive back at the house. 

“That took a while,” she points out curiously.

Harry nods.

“Any problems?” She asks.

He shakes his head. 

“Ok. Well, the other guy’s looking after Zayn, but I couldn’t convince the scratched one -- Louis was it? -- to shower. He said he wanted to wait for you to get back?” She raises an accusatory eyebrow at Harry.

Harry is far too exhausted mentally and physically to rise to the bait, and he’s even too drained to tease her for only remembering Zayn’s name, so he shakes his head instead. “He’s still getting used to having a human body.” 

Nathalie’s eyes widen. “Right. Well, I’ll just leave you too it then. Umm, Niall, was it? Shall I show you the other shower?”

She disappears through another doorway with Niall in tow and Harry wanders back into the living room.  

Louis is still curled up on the cream armchair, his face is frowning even in sleep, and his perfect chest is marred by the stark white bandages. 

“Louis?” Harry whispers, crouching beside the chair and placing a hand lightly on Louis’ shoulder. 

“Hmm?” Is the reply.

“Time to wake up now, we need to get you properly cleaned up.”

“It itches,” a sleepy Louis slurs.

“I know,” Harry says quietly, running his fingertips gently down Louis’ arm, “but it won’t for long. Just a few more minutes and we can get you scrubbed down and into a proper bed.”

“Think ’m tired, Harry.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” Harry’s mouth curves up.

The sound of shuffling feet interrupts their moment and Louis seems to finally come awake as Nathalie walks into the room with a pile of towels and clothes and bandages. “Liam divided up the clothes. He’s left these ones for you and he wanted me to tell you to take a nap. My mom should be back in a few hours so you can wake up then, Niall says he’s set an alarm.” She pauses. “You can use my room, it’s through there and there’s an ensuite.”

Harry nods and levers himself off of the floor, helping up a shaky Louis as he goes.

*

The room is as cream coloured and emotionless as the rest of the house and Harry gets another pang of sympathy for Nathalie. She might have only been there a month, but surely her room should have more personality than this by now? Even unpacked boxes would be better than this.

“Is your room like this?” Louis asks quietly, and it strikes him suddenly that the man has only ever lived in hotels and holiday lets in his short human life. 

“Not even a little bit,” Harry whispers.

They shuffle into the bathroom, and that at least looks like it belongs to someone. There’s makeup scattered haphazardly on the countertops and bottles of perfume, and more different types of moisturizer than any one person could possibly use. The bathroom itself is an off-white with gold accents and has an enormous marble bath in the centre, complete with shower head.  Harry had expected nothing less. 

He pops his pile of clothes and towels down on the closed lid of the toilet and turns to examine Louis.

“You’re being very quiet,” he says carefully. 

“My throat hurts,” Louis replies.

Harry takes a step closer and places his hands firmly on Louis’ shoulders. “I can’t feel what you feel anymore, but I’m not stupid, Lou.” 

Louis’ face crumbles. “Everything hurts.” 

“I know, but we’ll get you cleaned up.” 

“No, you don’t understand. It’s everywhere.” Louis shakes his head with sudden desperation. “It’s everywhere. My insides feel like they’re all, all twisted, and prickly and they  _ ache,  _ and the outside’s even worse. My  _ skin  _ hurts, Harry, you felt it back there, when my family was upset, you felt it. It’s like grief burning me up and I can’t make it stop.”

_ My family.  _ The words wrench at Harry’s insides. It had been his family trying to kill them, trying hopelessly to get Louis back to them. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.

“I don’t know what to do Harry, I don’t know how to make it better. Everything here is strange and different and I was coping with it when I didn’t know it was permanent, but this-- I don’t know how to do this. My insides hurt and I don’t understand what it means and I don’t know how to make it stop and now my outsides hurt too!”

Louis’ desperation is vibrating through Harry almost like they’re back on Louis’ world, but he’s the experienced human here, so he pulls himself together and tries to think. If this were Liam he’d sit beside him, hug him, try to offer him comfort, listen to him talk. But Louis has a burned throat and his body hurts and he’s not used to human emotions.

But contact, contact must be key, because Louis’ skin is painful and probably quite cold wrapped only in shorts and bandages. And if Louis is used to emotions being something in the air, like a physical external sensation then maybe there is something Harry can do. 

“I have an idea,” he says.

*

He talks to Louis about nothing as the bath fills, telling him about his own house back at home, his bedroom, his mom, his cat, Bob. He isn’t sure if the words soothe him as much as the steam that slowly starts to fill the room with a gentle warmth, but he keeps babbling anyway, kneading Louis’ hands gently as he talks and then slowly unwrapping his bandages when the bath is full.

“I can’t swim though,” Louis says shakily after Harry’s finished inspecting the scrapes -- they’re shallow at least.

“You don’t have to, the water’s not that deep.”

“But, it would be--  _ safer _ if you were with me.”

Harry frowns. “You’re injured and you’ve had a shock Lou, it’s not a good idea to be thinking about sex.”

Louis’ eyes widen. “No, not sex, nothing like that. But in Greece, with the hug, you said it was about comfort?”

Harry nods slowly, “it was.”

Louis nods and winces as he wraps his arms around his painful torso. “I could really use some comfort right now.”

Harry lets out his breath in a long sigh and nods. “Underwear is staying on though.”

“Spoilsport,” Louis pouts automatically, and Harry’s chest loosens at the small glimpse of the playful man he’d been before. 

He climbs in first, clad only in the boxer-briefs he’d been wearing for probably far too many days. Louis is wearing a pair that must have come from the suitcase Niall had magicked up at Skiathos airport, and Harry might have struggled not to stare if he wasn’t so worried about him. 

“It might sting a little at first,” Harry says when Louis hisses at the first touch of the warm water. “It’ll get better though.”

He considers trying to play the gentleman and sit them at different ends of the tub, but who’s he kidding? Louis wants comfort and he obviously needs something physical, something touching his skin to remind him that he’s not all alone. He tugs Louis down so that his knees are bracketing the man’s hips and then pulls him back against his chest, wrapping him up carefully in his arms. 

Louis leans back almost immediately, stiffening for a moment as his scraped skin comes to rest against Harry and then settling again, dropping his head back gently onto Harry’s shoulder, his hair brushing against Harry’s cheek.

The room is quiet and warm and the smell of lavender is heady in the air from the bubble-bath. Harry finally lets himself relax, sinking further back into the water as the minutes tick by. He’s comfortable, and the itch has gone, and Louis is a smooth, solid warm weight pressing flush against his chest. His eyes are still prickling though, and the weight of the hours that they’ve been awake for is finally starting to hit him all at once. He just needs some sleep, everything will be better after some sleep. He lets his eyes fall shut.

“So this is what humans do to heal?” Louis asks quietly.

“Sort of,” Harry smiles gently, “but we don’t usually think of it that way. To relax mostly, and to get clean.”

They share a moment of contemplation, the silence broken only by the slow dripping of the tap. Louis brings his hands up to brush Harry’s arms where they cross over his chest. “Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Just relax Lou, maybe try and nap, I’ve got you.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I know,” Harry sighs, tucking his nose into Louis’ hair, “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what it must be like, leaving your family behind, leaving your world, coming here where everything’s so different.”

“Back on--” Louis trails off, and then taps on Harry’s hand a few times and pulls up his hand to blow gently on his fingers. Harry recognises it as a place name, the place they’d been in Louis’ language. “Back  _ home,  _ you felt like-- you said-- you felt like we were family. When I was hurt, you sent family. Was that on purpose?”

“Of course it was,” Harry pulls him in tighter. “I’m not going to leave you Louis. Not me, or Liam, and I don’t think Zayn will either. Whatever happens, you’re not going to be alone. You can come home with me and you can meet my mom, and we’ll find you a job that you like and you can meet Liam’s sister. It’s going to be ok, Lou.”

“So you’ll still be here, if the world doesn’t end?”

“Even if it does,” Harry whispers.

“And we’re family now?”

“Always.”

*

They’re out of the bath and dried off with thick white towels when Harry decides he really can’t sleep. Louis is out cold in Nathalie’s bed, and Harry had been trying to follow suit for the better part of an hour when he finally decides to head out to the living room. He can’t stop his brain from turning everything over, that’s the problem.

And it seems he isn’t the only one. Light brown hair is poking up over the back of the chair that Louis had been curled in. 

“You couldn’t sleep either?” He asks Liam, walking around to face him and dropping down onto the thick rug. He’d dressed in jeans and a light green jumper before leaving the room and it seems that Liam had opted to do the same, wearing his own new pair of baggy jeans and light blue hoodie.  

“I can’t stop thinking about it all,” Liam says.

“The world ending?”

Liam shakes his head. 

Harry sighs. “Louis and Zayn. Me neither.”

“I know we’re supposed to be worrying about the portals, but Niall won’t tell us enough to help and it’s  _ the sun,  _ you know? It doesn’t seem real enough to worry about.”

Harry nods.

“But Zayn,” Liam continues. “I don’t know how to help him. He’s stuck here  _ forever _ , and he’s never been properly alone before. And Haz, what about the weather? Cold feels like sadness to them, pain feels like  _ grief _ . We were so lucky with Louis, the first time he was properly conscious outside was in Greece in the summer. The shock of the air on his skin when he first came through must have been horrible, it’s no wonder he passed out.”

“Zayn came through in the water,” Harry says, “I hadn’t thought about it but it must have been so cold, and then sitting in the wind when he was wet.”

“He said it felt like anger -- he just assumed we were all angry, but it passed quickly because the sun was so warm.”

“We’re lucky they didn’t get sunburn,” Harry says glumly.

Liam nods. “Zayn--” He swallows. “He seems attracted to me, and Louis seems like he likes you.”

Harry nods. 

“But Harry we  _ made them. _ ”

Harry’s stomach drops as Liam continues. 

“How do we know that they actually like us like that? I mean, it’s hard enough that they’re aliens, and Zayn’s desperate to feel part of something again and Louis seems determined to explore his new body… But, how can we know that they’re actually responding to us? Niall said they were our ideal humans.”

Harry shakes his head but Liam doesn’t stop.

“Well it makes sense that our ideal humans would be attracted to us wouldn’t it?”

“Liam stop.” Niall’s voice comes from the other side of the room making them both jump. 

“You don’t think he’s right?” Harry asks, as Niall comes fully into the living room and crouches down beside him.

“I don’t think it’s worth worrying about right now. Neither of you are about to take advantage, and neither of you are self-centred enough to have been expecting your own personal sex doll to come through the portals, and even if you had been it wouldn’t affect their minds. Their bodies are responding to you because they like you and feel safe with you, and because they’re both young and healthy and don’t have any human gender biases. Their bodies are doing what’s natural, they were both of reproductive age on their own world.”

“But how can we help them Niall? How can they live here?” Harry says, desperately trying not to think about ‘ _ they were both of reproductive age,’  _ because it hadn’t even occurred to him that Louis could be young, but he  _ could _ have been.

“They’ll get used to it. I promise. And when we’ve fixed everything here I’ll take you to meet a few others like them and they can talk it through. It’s going to be ok.”

Harry shakes his head again. How could it possibly be ok? And if Niall sorts everything out and Louis and Zayn go to find more of their species, what then? Is that the end on their little family?

“For now, we have bigger problems,” Niall points out. 

“The portals,” Liam nods, giving Harry a weak smile which Harry does his best to return. They’re as bad as each other at least. 

“No,” Niall says, surprising them both. “This.”

He holds out his palm, and nestled there in the centre is a very distinctive, very green rock. 

“That’s from Zayn’s planet?” Liam asks, frowning.

“Yes,” Niall replies.

“You brought it with you?” Harry asks.

“No,” Niall shakes his head. “I found it in her mother’s room.”

_ Shit. _

*

“Louis, time to get up,” Harry whispers.

“Wh-”

“No!” Harry presses a firm hand over Louis’ mouth. “Quietly.”

“What’s going on?” Louis mutters groggily.

“Nathalie. Well, her mother; Niall found a rock from your world under her bed, we have to leave before she gets back. You’d better put your clothes on.”

“You think she’s dangerous?”

“I think that Niall says we should leave, so we’d better leave.”

*

He scoops up their bag of medical supplies as they sneak out of the house, relieved to see that his phone has somehow made it into the bottom. Nathalie’s nowhere in sight as they creep through the front door, and Harry can finally breathe again when they’ve dodged down the nearest side-street, jogging alongside Niall.

They stumble to a stop in front of a familiar yellow mini.

“Your car,” Liam stammers. 

“Sure,” Niall replies unhelpfully, unlocking it quickly. “Try and stay awake as long as you can ok? We’re going to Birmingham so we won’t be at the hotel for a few hours yet, but try not to go to sleep before 9. It’ll help the jetlag.”

_ Jetlag.  _ Harry almost snorts. They’ve been to Greece, to Geneva, to Colorado, to  _ another planet _ , back to England, and then  _ back in time _ . Jetlag _.  _ Niall’s worried about  _ jetlag.  _

He climbs into the car with an only-slightly-hysterical smile on his face. 

*  

The next day Harry isn’t feeling rested exactly, but he’s slept for 12 hours and he’s feeling a bit more stable if nothing else. They’re in an IBIS hotel that Niall had paid for, and Harry’s body is grateful to have been allowed proper rest in a proper bed. His skin is tingling faintly but he seems to be over the worst of the burning air and his head’s still aching a little bit, but Niall says it’s nothing to worry about. 

He’s also pleased to see that Louis’ back is starting to scab over cleanly, so he probably doesn’t need to be worrying about any strange alien infections like he privately had been. Zayn and Louis had roomed together again, and this time Harry had been too grateful to be jealous -- whatever happened, at least they both had someone around who understood, someone of their own species. He and Liam had hurried over to their room the next morning though, and Harry had insisted on checking Louis over. 

Still, Louis is healing well and they’re all feeling better than they were. As it is, Harry’s almost strong enough  _ not _ to glare when Niall suggests that they go to find another portal. 

“And this is helping us how?” He huffs over breakfast -- Louis has his mouth crammed with toast and is watching them curiously as Liam nods his agreement and Zayn carefully pokes at his yoghurt. 

“I know it’s important to help anyone new coming through a portal Niall, but no one at all will survive more than six days if we don’t fix  _ the sun _ , so maybe it’s not the highest priority right now?” Harry finishes. 

“It’s not that,” Niall shakes his head, “it’s that they’re opening up and we don’t know why.”

“But you said it was because of the sun,” Zayn points out.

Niall nods, “exactly. That’s exactly right, it  _ is _ because of the sun-- But how often are they opening? Is it only humans and your people getting pulled through? Where do they go to, how often do they open in each direction, is the pull getting stronger, are they getting bigger? We need to know.”

“Why?” Louis asks. 

“Because they’re the  _ symptom,  _ and we have no other way of working out the cause. I know there’s something wrong with the sun, and I know the sun’s pull on matter is erratic and is slowly getting weaker. I just don’t know  _ why. _ ”

“That alien,” Liam says, and Louis looks up sharply, “back on the other world, it said that the sun’s pull was weaker. I remember because he kept saying  _ sun  _ when there were two suns.”

“So our sun is getting weaker at the same time as yours,” Louis jumps in quickly, “and the portals seem to be joining the two planets. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“No,” Niall says, “I don’t think it is, so that’s something, but we still need to know more.”

Harry stares at his banana in contemplation. “So you’re looking for what, for patterns?”

“Amongst other things.” Niall nods.

Harry squints at his banana some more, looking at the little brown stringy bits that he’d always used to peel off as a child. “Then surely what we need,” he says slowly, “is a map.”

*

It makes sense, Harry tries to explain, because the chances of them ending up in England were so small, and yet they  _ did _ . He’s been thinking about it a lot, ever since Niall had said they could open anywhere, and yet they’d ended up back home. The portals had opened twice in England, and now they’ve even run into Niall himself -- well a past version of him anyway, and Harry isn’t about to risk pointing out how suspicious that is, but something’s clearly going on.

And on top of that, they’d landed a foot from the ground-- surely if the portals were opening randomly then they were more likely to end up in the Earth’s core, or a hundred feet over the Pacific Ocean, or in the desert, rather than a safe distance from the floor in a quaint little catholic school.

The group nods in agreement when Harry points all this out and they spend the rest of breakfast in contemplative silence. They’ve paid and headed back to the rooms before Niall finally speaks. “Ok,” he sighs, “Harry’s right. The next one isn’t till this afternoon, give me a minute to go get a map and we can start.”

*

Zayn goes with him this time, and Harry spends the thirty-minute wait with Liam and Louis, sitting on Niall’s hotel bed and trading stories of growing up. 

“My family sent me to school in a different part of the current,” Louis says, “we didn’t get on that well-- well, my mom is amazing, but she tended to get drowned out a lot.”

Harry wants to ask if he’d seen her, when they’d been pulled there, but he isn’t sure if it’s kind to ask so soon. 

“What subjects do you learn?” Liam asks curiously, keeping the conversation light hearted and reminding Harry once again why they get on so well.

“We learn about the current, about control of emotions, about transfer of emotions and energy. Social things, law, healing, reproducing, umm, physics? Atoms and particles and things. We can’t see them but scientists have worked it out using their effects on the current. Biology as well, I suppose, and lots of Maths.”

“No music?” Liam says, “Art?”

Louis grins crookedly. “Yeah, well that’s the biggest problem in our society right now, there’s a lot of fights about it, and a lot of influence from whoever is in charge. The current leader in our city is against music.”

“Rubbish,” Harry snorts.

“Exactly!” Louis smiles back. “ _ The air is shared  _ and all that. Apparently music isn’t fair, but that’s just stupid. Not letting people  _ feel  _ isn’t fair. I mean, it’s cold here and the air is angry and it’s lonely, but my feelings are  _ my  _ feelings, so that’s something.”

They’re quiet for a while before Liam jumps in again. “So do you have secret underground music festivals on your world then?”

Louis smiles again and Harry can’t help but smile with him. 

“Sort of,” Louis says, “You have to make a sort of buffer; if you surround the sound then you can stop it from being passed along. It’s not easy but we got pretty good at it. It’s what I was doing actually, when I was pulled through. It was my first festival. I guess I’d gone too far from the group -- it’s easier to have secret festivals at the edge of the current.”

“Hell of a way to end your first festival,” Liam mutters. 

Louis smiles, “well I never went to one when I was at school, and I was doing some travelling around, trying to decide what I wanted to do with myself when I heard about one. I suppose I was too scared when I was a child.”

“And you have art too?” Harry asks quietly, something in him relaxing at the confirmation that Louis hadn’t still been at school when he was pulled through the portal, that he didn’t consider himself a child. 

“We have art yeah,” Louis nods.

“I used to be good at art,” a new voice chimes in, and the three of them turn as Zayn comes through the door, followed closely by Niall.

“You were?” Louis asks. “That’s cool, I was terrible at it. You had to like, fluctuate your energy to make marks on the ground or to make the air vibrate, it was really hard. Or were you one of those  _ performance  _ people?” Louis grins, “did you dance about your feelings, Zayn?”

The alien in question snorts and drops down onto the bed beside them, “so what if I did?”

Louis smiles and shrugs. “I actually thought it was kind of hot all that dancing.”

“I bet you did,” Zayn shakes his head, and Harry tries to ignore the thrum of jealousy through his veins. 

With the way Liam is fidgeting he doesn’t think he’s the only one.  

*

They pour over the map after that, adding on the locations of the portals - well, four of them do. It seems Niall has bought Zayn and Louis sketchpads to help them get used to writing, and Zayn decides that this is a good enough reason to spend the time doodling. 

“That’s pretty good actually,” Liam says, nodding over at a cartoon dog that Zayn’s just sketched. 

“I saw one outside,” Zayn nods, “I think I’m getting the hang of it actually. It’s not so different from art on our world, I mean, you focus your body to move something and make lines. Over there it’s air or dust, over here it’s this thing.” He holds up his pencil.

“Well you’re a natural!” Liam says, beaming, “hey Hazza look, doesn’t that remind you of your book.”

“Curious Bob!” Harry nods with a grin, glad of a chance to look away from the map, “Curious Bob the celestial dog, yeah it does a bit, nice work mate.”

“Thanks. I think I’m done now though, my wrist hurts,” Zayn says, putting the pencil down, “have you finished yet Niall?”

Niall shrugs and points at the map, now covered with hand-drawn circles, “these are the portals we know about but we don’t really have enough to see a pattern. We should be able to add more later though, there will have been more that we haven’t seen and I’m getting better at spotting them.”

“So why can’t we add them now?” Louis asks.

Niall glances down at Harry’s phone that’s once again mysteriously in his hand. “Because If I’m not mistaken,” he says, “it’s portal time.”

*

They walk to the next one, dropping the single bag of slightly shredded old clothes into the car on the way. There’s a cat curled up on the car bonnet and Niall shoos it away with a frown. They get some strange as they prepare to leave, and Harry wonders what they must think of the rag-tag unshaven group with minor injuries, ill-fitting clothes, and several day’s beard growth who pay in cash. Still, they have work to do. They can pick up some more clothes later, and maybe a razor or two, because teasing Liam about his shitty beard isn’t so funny when Harry’s starting to sport his own.

“So is this a sucking in portal, or a spitting out one?” Liam asks, sitting on the edge of a desk and swinging his legs. They’re in an office building that Niall mysteriously had the key to, but thankfully it’s the weekend so there isn’t anyone there.

“I’m not sure,” Niall says, “I don’t have enough information yet, I’ve only seen the one that pulled us in, I’ll need another before I can say for sure.”

“Well spitting out smelled of pineapple,” Liam points out, “so we can look out for that.”

“Yeah,” Niall frowns, “just be careful, if you feel anything pulling at you like last time don’t bloody walk towards it.”

“Maybe you should have warned us about that before we were nearly killed on an inhospitable planet?” Harry points out. 

“Well I’m telling you now,” Niall says guiltily, but he smiles broadly when he catches Harry’s grin.

“No harm done.” Harry shrugs. He should probably dislike Niall, at this point, but there’s something so desperately friendly about the man, and Harry gets the impression that he’s trying as hard as he can, even if he isn’t getting that far. 

“Alright then.” Harry nods, “better start looking.”

They comb the offices for a good half hour before Liam starts to get fidgety. “I’m going to the bathroom,” he says.

Harry nods, he’s feeling a tug at his own bladder but there’s a few more offices on his side to walk through just yet. 

“Found anything?” Louis asks, sidling up to him.

“No, you?”

Louis shakes his head, “no. The loo’s calling though.”

“Niall?” Harry calls.

The blonde pops up with Zayn in tow. “Anything?” He says.

Harry and Louis shake their heads.

“It should be any moment,” Niall says frowning, “I’ll just nip to the loo and then we can start again.”

“Yeah ok, me too,” says Harry, as the others nod.

They’ve taken one step forwards when they hear the first shout. 

“Was that Liam?” Zayn asks. 

There’s another shout, louder this time. 

“Where is he?” Niall says, spinning round suddenly, his face going pale.

“Help!” Comes the shout again.

“He’s in the loo,” Harry says.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just putting out chapters when I feel like it because I'm a rebel.


	8. There and back again

_So he takes out a paw_

_And pokes twice more_

_And up springs the life that we know_

 

 _I should have known,_ Harry thinks desperately.

They sprint towards the door but Niall stops them before they go barrelling through. “Remember last time?”

Harry tenses as Niall pushes the door open, adrenaline flooding his system. “Liam?”

“Harry?” Liam’s voice is shaky and hollow. He’s standing at the far end of the room, his back pressed solidly against the tile wall. Behind him, enveloping him, the light is dancing in a steadily growing shimmer. Cubicles line one wall and sinks the other, their mirrors reflecting Liam’s rapidly paling face. There’s just space for three of them to stand side-by side.

Harry darts forwards but a hand tangles in his collar and yanks him back. “Remember last time!” Niall hisses.

“I can’t move,” Liam says again.

The bottom drops out of Harry’s stomach and he shakes his head desperately. “Of course you can, it’s not full size yet”

“It’s pulling me,” Liam says tightly.

“Then we’ll just come through with you,” Zayn jumps in, stepping forwards as Louis nods bravely behind him, “Niall can keep us alive again.”

“No!” Niall growls. He grabs Zayn roughly by the arm, choking Harry by his collar and turns to glare warningly at Louis.

“So you just want to let Liam go through alone then?” Harry growls, his head filling with static. “He’ll die!”

The air is thick with the scent of earth and rain and Harry’s chest is tightening with every breath of it. He can feel the draw still - it’s a coiled, insistent thing tugging in his gut, but it’s not pulling him, not _physically._ He’s far enough away, they’re all far enough away.

Except Liam.

He jerks forwards again, struggling against the hand that’s holding him, but Niall’s strong, too strong. Stronger than a human. He twists again but the fabric of his jumper is tight around his neck. Zayn flinches on the other side, and Harry suspects he’s just had a taste of the same unnatural strength.

“Liam’s not going to die,” Niall snaps, “but you have to stay here, we have to keep searching, we can’t risk traveling again, do you understand?”

Harry shakes his head.

“You have to trust me. We can’t risk traveling forwards in time, we need to be here now to fix things and I can’t do that if I’m trying to save you all!”

Harry twists again, trying to slip out from his jumper but Niall only pulls it tighter.

“Liam!” Louis shouts desperately, trying and failing to push past Niall. “We need a rope, Niall!”

Niall only shakes his head, so Louis scrambles up and onto the sinks, trying to crawl around the side. Niall lets Harry go to tug Louis back down, and Harry takes the opportunity to lunge forwards.

“Stop! Everybody stop!” Niall shouts desperately.

And suddenly Harry can’t move.

“It’s pulling me through the wall--It’s crushing me--I can’t--Niall!” Liam chokes.

Harry twists, he waves his arms, he yells. On either side of him Louis and Zayn are doing the same, but it’s not helping, nothing’s helping. The portal is full size now, buried half in the wall and pulling, _pulling._

“It’s got us too! Niall!” Harry shouts desperately.

“I’m sorry.” Niall shakes his head, stepping away.

Harry blinks in confusion. It’s got them, they can’t move, but Niall--Niall’s closer to it. Niall’s in front of them.

Niall can move just fine.

“It’s not the portal,” Niall says tightly.

“What?” Harry says.

Niall shakes his head and turns. “It’s not the portal. Not that one anyway. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go after Liam, and I can’t free him either, it’s too strong.”

“But--”

“Niall!” Liam yells.

Niall turns away abruptly and takes a step to the side. Harry twists his head as much as he can, but all he can see is the back of Niall’s head, but then--there’s a stillness to the air that makes him take a sharp breath, and a creaking sort of tearing feeling, and then there’s light.

Bright light.

A bright white light that glows painfully behind Harry’s hastily shut eyelids, and then the light is flickering as if something’s moving in front of it and there’s a bone rattling _crunch_ and it’s gone.

And then suddenly, everything’s moving at half speed. It must be. Because Harry’s watching it all unfold, and somehow they’re all too slow to stop it.

“Niall! Niall I can move again!” Liam’s voice shouts out into the dark.

Harry drags his eyes back open as the force holding him finally lets go. He staggers shakily forwards, taking in the room as Liam launches himself towards Niall, and Niall--

Niall’s leaping towards Liam with a cat.

A _cat_.

He’s pressing a small black and white cat firmly into Liam’s arms and Liam’s face is a mask of confusion.

“Hold it! Do not let that cat go! Do you understand me Liam?” Niall yells.

“What? But--” Liam stammers.

“Don’t let it go, Liam! Don’t let it go! Not for a second!”

“But--”

“Hold the cat. Find the aliens, find help, they’ll be near the portal, you have to find a portal. You’ll be OK. I promise Liam, you’ll be OK!” Niall yells.

Harry shakes his head, it doesn’t make sense. Liam’s fine, Liam’s away from the wall, the portal doesn’t have him anymore, Liam’s safe now.

“Hold the cat Liam!” Niall yells, his face still a desperate grimace.

And then the portal gives a blinding pulse of light and the smell of rain is clogging his throat and he squints painfully against the brightness.

And then it’s gone.

And so is Liam.

*

“Liam!”

Harry isn’t sure who’s shouting as he sprints towards the portal, slamming full-force into the solid tile of the wall. His shoulder cracks against it first, then his head.

“Ni’l,” he slurs, as the world spins around him. _What happened? What happened!_

Zayn’s hammering uselessly at the smooth surface and Louis is racing around, pressing his hands against it, testing the tile.

“Where did he go? Niall?” Zayn yells.

“He was pulled through the portal,” Niall says dully.

“But he was right here?” Zayn says.

“It still had him,” Niall shakes his head, “it still had him.”

“Then why didn’t you save him!” Zayn shouts.

“I did.” Niall shakes his head.

“You were right there, you were touching him, if you knew it had him why didn’t you hold on to him!” Zayn’s shaking with anger, his hands balled into fists.

“It wouldn’t have helped!” Niall shakes his head again desperately, “Zayn, it wouldn’t have helped!”

Harry’s ears are buzzing and his breaths are coming in short, sharp pants. Behind him, Louis is still frantically testing the wall  “You didn’t even try,” He croaks, finally managing to push up off the floor and leaning heavily against the wall. “You let Liam--he’s--”

“He’s fine. He’ll be fine!” Niall says.

“Liam--” Harry shakes his head. “A cat--Niall?”

Niall shakes his head desperately.

“Explain,” Zayn grits out.

Slowly, Niall nods.

*

Harry, Louis, and Zayn all refuse to leave the bathroom, so they sit on the floor as Niall stares down at his knees.

“Is Liam dead?” Harry asks blankly.

“No.” Niall shakes his head hurriedly. “Not at all, he should be fine.”

Harry nods again, slowly. He should be angry, probably, or sad or--something. Beside him Zayn is still, but Louis is a tapping ball of nervous energy.

“Why didn’t you hold on to him?” Zayn asks tonelessly.

 _Shock._ Harry realises. _I’m in shock._

“It wouldn’t have helped.” Niall says miserably. “I realized when--before, when we were pulled back to St. Helen’s.”

“At the school?” Harry frowns. “No, just before we came through the portal, when we were on Louis and Zayn’s world, when you came back for us.” There’s brief flicker of remembered chaos in his mind -- Louis unconscious on the alien ground, Liam, Zayn, and Niall dragging them through the portal.

“We didn’t come back, we never went through,” Niall says shakily. “We couldn’t have gone through, it doesn’t work like that, it’s not an open door. You just couldn’t see us because of the light.”

Harry shakes his head in confusion.

“We moved closer to you, away from the portal. We were still quite far away when it opened,” Niall continues, “but we were pulled through anyway. It’s like a vacuum, it gets hold of you and sucks you through, but it’s only open for a fraction of a second. Once you’ve been immobilized, once you’re _frozen_ the process has already started, you can’t get away. It doesn’t matter how far he’d gone, Liam would have been pulled through anyway.”

“You could have gone with him,” Louis growls.

 _At least one of us is still thinking straight._ Harry thinks.

“I couldn’t, Louis, I couldn’t. We need to be here to save everyone, I can’t sacrifice all of you for just one.”

“Liar!” Louis shouts, the nervous twitching energy bursting out of him all at once as he turns to Harry and then to Zayn. “Don’t listen to him! Don’t--he opened a portal, I saw him, that’s what he was doing, that’s where the cat came from, he opened a portal, he’s the one doing this!”

“What?” Harry shakes his head slowly, uncomprehending. The light, was that what the light was?

“It’s not like that,” Niall says, looking up urgently. “Louis I swear it’s not like that!”

“I saw you!” Louis is shaking with anger, and Harry places a hand gently against his chest, they can’t afford to fight, not now.

Niall swallows heavily. “I know. I did open a portal, but it was small, temporary, I can’t go long distances, and I would never--I swear to you Louis, to all of you, I swear I’m not the one causing this.”

There’s silence as the words sink in. Outside the bathroom, a door slams heavily and Louis jumps. Harry drops his hand down to rest on the alien’s leg and focuses on the situation. “If you can open portals,” he says slowly, “then you can bring Liam back.”

“No, I can’t,” Niall’s voice chokes off. “Harry I can’t. It’s a different planet, it’s too far. I swear to you though, I’m doing the best that I can. Liam should be ok. I promise.”

“Then we can travel back to an hour ago,” Harry says, shaking his head, ignoring Niall’s words, “we can go back and stop ourselves from coming here.”

“I can’t,” Niall’s voice cracks. “I’m too limited in this body and I don’t--I don’t know how.”

“Then what can you do Niall?” Harry snarls, his frayed patience suddenly snapping, breaking through the shock, “what exactly is the point of you?”

There’s a silence as they all stare regretfully at the floor, but Harry can’t bring himself to take it back, not yet. The seconds tick past and Harry feels every one of them. How long could Liam survive there? Minutes? Seconds?

“You made a portal, Louis saw you,” Harry says finally, letting his leg press against Louis’ in a desperate attempt to ground himself. _This is really happening._

“Yes,” Niall whispers.

“Why?” Harry asks.

“To get the cat. I saw one outside the hotel earlier so I made a few small portals to find it. It wasn’t hard, cats have a type of...signature.”

Harry nods, taking in the information. His emotions have gone back to static, and beside him Louis is still trembling--from anger, exhaustion, pain or some other emotion, Harry isn’t sure, and Zayn--Zayn’s still staring blankly at the wall.

“I--have some abilities,” Niall says finally. “I can make portals, small ones that don’t go far--I can’t go through time yet, but I can change the air around me, I can manipulate matter, it’s how I made the portal and it’s how I kept you all alive on the other planet.”

“And it’s how you froze us in place,” Zayn says quietly.

“Yes.” Niall takes a deep breath. “But I’m restricted in this body, and I’m still new to this. Who I am--what I am--we aren’t supposed to get involved much, we can, but it never ends well.”

“But you’re here,” Harry points out.

“My--you would call him a brother, maybe--he sent me,” Niall says quietly, “he thought it would be a good idea, a good place to get experience.”

 _Experience._ Like their lives are someone’s playground. Like their planets are training wheels. Harry shakes his head.

“Then we have to get him to help us,” Louis says suddenly. “Your brother.”

“He can’t--I don’t know--he--” Niall shakes his head. “He’s not here anymore.”

Harry stares at the floor again, picking at the sole of his shoe. “You gave him a cat.” He shouldn’t even be thinking about it, not with his best friend in danger and possibly dead, but still, nothing makes sense. “Why?”

There’s more silence as Louis finally stops shaking to join the rest of them in numb stillness. One of the sinks is dripping, Harry notes, and the floor is hard.

“Cats used to be worshipped,” Niall says finally.

Harry frowns and shakes his head.

“In Egypt, they were a sacred animal. They had festivals for them, they mourned them when they died.”

Harry frowns again. “What does this have to do with--”

“But even before then,” Niall continues, “they were worshiped as warriors, as protectors. They were worshipped before people even knew what a cat was. They were holy. Divine. They were protectors. He’ll protect Liam.”

There’s a sickening twist in Harry’s stomach as he stares at the man who’s just let his best friend die and killed an innocent cat. He’d thought, somehow, that Niall being an alien meant that he knew what was going on, that he would pull out his magical powers and save them, that he had all the answers.

But this--Niall’s mad then. That’s the answer. He’s actually mad.

“Niall--” Harry chokes, too horrified to be angry as his throat starts to close off.

“Harry look at me, look at me,” Niall says desperately, taking Harry’s face between his hands as Harry’s breaths start to come in rough gasps. “Cats are different, ok? Whatever you think, whatever you _believe--_ cats--I know it sounds insane, I know, but it’s true.”

Harry pulls away, shaking his head desperately. _It’s a cat. It’s just a cat._ “You think a cat’s going to save him,” he rasps.

“That cat’s already saving him. I promise you, Harry.”

It’s too much, it’s layer after layer of pain and injury and anguish and Harry can’t get his head around it. Beside him Louis grasps one of his arms and Zayn the other, but even that contact isn’t enough. “How?” he says.

“I can’t tell you that.”

The hands are stroking down his arms, and Harry’s forcibly reminded of their world, of their own form of comfort, of how different everything is and how hard it must be for them. And here they are trying to help him, the only way they know how. He takes a shaky breath. “Why should we believe you?”

Niall’s silent for too long. Beside him, Zayn is shaking his head with a desperate look on his face and it’s Louis’ turn to stare blankly at the floor, but they’re both still gripping Harry’s arms, and it’s starting to help, to ground him.

“I was able to protect you from the air over there because my body reacts differently with the matter around me,” Niall says finally. “I know I said they were worshipped but maybe you should think of it as science, nature? Cats have a closer relationship with nature than any other animal, it’s instinctual, something that makes them just a bit different. The universe flows around them in a different way, the same way it flows around me. As long as Liam keeps hold of it, he’ll be safe.”

“It’s a _cat,_ ” Harry whispers.

“And Zayn and Louis are aliens, and Liam just got sucked through a portal.” Niall nods. “Please Harry, please just trust me a little longer?”

Zayn’s staring at him now, and Louis is doing the same, and it suddenly strikes Harry that they don’t know what’s usual on his world. They don’t know just how stupid it is to expect a cat to save his best friend. But they’ll go along with it if he does.

But then Niall _had_ saved them, just by holding on to them, and if cats worked in the same way--Harry can’t make portals, and he doesn’t know how to even find them, and he doesn’t know what’s going on, and Niall’s brought them this far.

And what choice do they have, when it really comes down to it?

“Ok,” he says finally.

*

The walk back to the car is excruciating, and the drive is even worse. They check back into the IBIS hotel, silent, tense, and this time Harry takes a room with Zayn and Louis, because he’s still too angry to share with Niall.

“We should go back over the map,” Niall says, after they’ve assembled in Harry, Louis, and Zayn’s room, “there might be something we’ve missed, and we can add the new portal as well.”

It’s late afternoon and they’ve had no food and no rest, and Harry’s feeling shaky and tense. Louis and Zayn are holding up a bit better, but Harry’s caught both of them frowning and poking at their chests—they can feel the worry, even if they don’t really recognise what it is.

He should sit them down and talk about it, explain, give them tips on how to make it feel better. He doesn’t really know how though, so instead they focus on the only thing they can--trying to find Liam.

They make themselves comfortable, spreading the map out on the bed and sitting cross legged around it. They’ve subconsciously positioned themselves so that Harry, Louis and Zayn are all huddled together on one side of the bed with Niall on other, Harry realizes, and he wonders if Niall has noticed. If he’s hurt by it.

Beside him, Louis is a warm line pressed along his arm, and it’s far more grounding than it has any right to be. Zayn’s leaning against his other side, but somehow he doesn’t feel crowded by it. He remembers the communication on their own planet, and it helps to know that they’re all still here together, trying to help each other, Zayn and Louis trying to get and give whatever comfort they can.

They add the new position to the map and it only takes Harry a moment to see that there’s no pattern—nothing that he can make out. He isn’t sure what he was expecting really—for all the portal points to form a big cross with Liam at the centre?

He slumps back in defeat.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve worked out which ones pull in and which ones push out now,” Niall says quietly.

Harry nods.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Louis asks slowly, his hand snaking out to wrap around Harry’s. A welcome rush of warmth goes through him and he squeezes back.

Niall shakes his head, “patterns maybe, something the areas have in common?”

“But--” Harry begins, not really sure how to pull apart the thoughts in his head--surely that could mean _anything_? Something that different places have in common could be anything at all, couldn’t it? “What kind of things, Niall? Physical things? Or like nature? Or culture? We went to CERN, could it be a physics thing?”

Niall shrugs and drops his head in his hands and Harry squashes down a spike of irritation--Niall’s trying just as hard as the rest of them, probably more. Anyway, he’s the only one who stands a chance of fixing this, he’s basically got the fate of the world on his shoulders. The irritation washes away and Harry finds himself left with a deep, burning sympathy, and underneath it all, a sharp, twist of fear.

“We’ll get there Niall,” he mutters, reaching across the map to awkwardly pat Niall’s knee, “we’ll work it out.”

They stare down at the map for a moment until Niall lifts his head and gives a weak smile. “Ok. Ok. Well they’re all in or around populated places so far, quite close to physics institutes--or no, there wasn’t one in Greece, umm, different climates, different cultures--” he trails off, looking despondent.

“There must be more,” Zayn says gently, “there must have been other ones that we haven’t seen, or ones before we started looking? Maybe with more sites we can get a better idea?”

Niall frowns down at the map. “That’s possible. I’ve tried to catch all the ones I could but there are bound to be some I’ve missed.”

Harry nods, shuddering as he’s forcibly reminded of the three charred bodies they’d found on the other world. They’ve definitely missed some, and people have certainly gone through, and presumably aliens have come out as well.

“Maybe you should tell us more about what the portals are? And maybe how you made one?” Louis says from beside him, and Harry squeezes his hand again, relieved that there’s no censure in his voice--Louis has forgiven Niall then, or at least, he’s willing to give him a chance.

“Ok,” Niall says slowly, giving Louis a grateful nod, “ok. I’ve already told you most of it. The portals happen when there are pressure differences between atoms, caused by the constant movement of matter.”

“Everything sloshing around.” Harry nods, remembering their previous conversation. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t understand it, but it’s good that Niall’s trying.

“Something like that yeah.” Niall shakes his head. “But not really. Anyway, my presence has an effect as well, only it’s not very much. If I try really hard though I can replicate it and make small portals. That’s how I made one, Louis, my presence sort of, pulls a specific type of matter towards it--some animals have the same ability, cats in particular. It’s the reason why Liam is going to be ok.”

Harry shakes his head, still not really able to believe it, but desperate to.

“The pull I have is weak though, there’s only so much I can do,” Niall continues, “the sun’s pull is much stronger, and it keeps things in balance. I’ve been interested in it for years but it was always just sort of a side project.” He looks away guiltily. “Only now it looks like the pull is weakening, maybe even stopping, and at the same time, the sun’s becoming unstable, like it’s dying.”

“And our sun as well,” Louis says, “on our world.”

They stare at the map for a moment, letting that sink in.

“But it’s not getting weaker,” Harry says, “I mean, it’s still warm outside.”

“Yeah.” Niall nods. “But it’s not really ok. The amount of solar flares have increased, and the amount of solar storms. It’s becoming unstable, and people are starting to notice. Well, physicists anyway. The lab in Denver was already panicking—or, _will be_ , I suppose. We’re a week behind ourselves.”

 _Six days,_ Harry thinks with another pang of worry. Six days until they’re back where they started.

“So how do we stop it?” Louis asks slowly.

Niall shifts on the bed. “We find out what’s causing it, and the best way to do that is to find more portals. They’ll probably be on land and around populated areas. All animals pull at matter, so we’re more likely to get them around regions where there is a high density of animals, so probably not in the sky or the middle of the sea.”

“Only my portal did open in the sea,” Zayn points out.

“Yeah.” Niall nods, “but it’s close to the town, the effect is quite broad. That’s why I can usually find the general area but not the exact location.”

They all sit in contemplation for a while. Harry’s head is spinning too much to ask anything particularly insightful, but there’s still one thing he doesn’t understand. “But _how_ are you actually finding them?” He asks.

“The weather,” Niall smiles faintly. “I wasn’t joking about that. I’m looking at unusual pressure differences, it correlates the best with where the portals are opening.”

Zayn frowns. “So then shouldn’t we be able to find the missing portals the same way? Don’t you have history here? Things recorded? You must record things right?”

He stares at Niall with wide eyes as Niall gapes back. A minute passes, and then another, and another, until finally Niall opens his mouth. “Oh,” he says.

*

They rush down to the lone computer in the hotel lobby and spend the next hour combing through data from the met office and other assorted weather institutes. Niall calls out the GPS coordinates he thinks are suspect and Harry looks them up on his phone and finds the grid references for Louis and Zayn to add to the map that they’ve casually spread out on the floor.

“Ok, we’re done for the last two weeks,” Niall says, after the last coordinate has been called out. “It’s only in the last two days that the number’s really started to go up noticeably, but it looks like they’ve been happening more and more frequently for a while before then--probably months, maybe years. It’s a pity we don’t have the information for the rest of the week though, that would tell us more.”

“You’re sure you can’t make a time-portal?” Louis asks.

Niall shakes his head, looking down at the map. “Hopefully we have enough here, we can--” He swallows.

Harry waits for a moment, and then another moment. Only Niall’s just standing there staring at the little red marks.

“Niall?” Louis calls curiously.

Niall stares down at the map, his face rapidly paling. “Shit,” he whispers.

Zayn takes a step towards him. “What is it?”

“It’s me.”

Harry shakes his head. “What?”

“I’m so sorry.” Niall looks up from the map, his eyes wide and frightened, turning to focus on Louis and Zayn as they scramble up off the floor. “I’m so sorry, Louis,” he shakes his head, “you were right, it’s me. Every time I’ve come here, every time I’ve left--”

“What’s you?” Louis asks.

Niall shakes his head desperately, reaching a hand out to Louis and then yanking it back to wrap around his middle. “The spitting out portals, where I’ve left, the sucking in portals, where I’ve arrived, and this one--this is a location I usually open portals too.”

“I don’t understand,” Louis says, shaking his head.

Niall shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. “It’s just like you said Louis, they’re opening where I’ve been. Every single one of them within 100 meters of somewhere I’ve opened a portal. I’m the one causing this. It’s all my fault.” He shakes his head. “I did this.”

“You didn’t break the sun though, right?” Louis asks quietly.

“I--no, no I didn’t do that.”

Louis steps forwards and places a hand solidly on the shaking man’s shoulder, “ok, then it’s not your fault, Niall.”

*

It’s four exhausted individuals that hobble down to dinner that evening. They’re still in shock from losing Liam and their bodies are recovering from all the traveling, and Harry would like nothing more than to sleep, but he insists on food--someone has to look after them.

“You didn’t do it on purpose Niall,” Louis says again, when a silent dinner’s been had and they’re finally ready to rest, “if the sun’s causing this then it would be happening anyway, the only difference is that now it’s easier to predict where they might be.”

Niall only nods as he wanders off to his room alone.

“Will he be ok?” Zayn says quietly.

Harry doesn’t know what to say, so he keeps his mouth shut.

 _I should go with him,_ he thinks, but Louis and Zayn are still so new to this and Harry wants to make sure they’re ok. And maybe a part of him, a small part is still angry at Niall--for his secrets, for not saving Liam.

It’s with a guilty turn of his stomach that Harry follows Louis and Zayn into their room.

*

The next day, they’re all apparently looking on the brightside.

“It’s like Louis said yesterday, now that we know that the portals are opening where Niall’s been, we can predict them better,” Zayn says as they head once more for the car.

“And I can tell the difference between the types now,” Niall says quietly, “we just need to find a spitting out portal, Liam’ll be looking for one.”

“But how’s he supposed to find it?” Harry wonders out loud, shaking his head as he climbs heavily into the back of the car.

“Our people will help him,” Zayn pipes up from the front.

Beside him, Louis nods. “They’ll sense him.” He reaches out and takes Harry’s hand. “They’ll sense his emotions and find him--panic is the easiest to feel. We--they know how to find portals.”

 _They know how to find portals. They. But not us, and not Louis._ Because Louis and Zayn weren’t energy based anymore. They have human bodies. They’re trapped. Harry strokes Louis’ hand gently, trying to convey _comfort_. They’d shared a bed, Harry, Louis, and Zayn, all piled together with Zayn bracketed between them. If they were humans he’d only known for a week Harry isn’t sure he’d have wanted to, but Zayn and Louis have such a different relationship to touch, and the contact seemed to have helped. It had made Harry feel better too, which was an unexpected bonus.

Niall had stayed in his own room, and in the cold light of the morning, Harry’s having to face his mistake. Maybe he should have gone with Niall, because the guilt seems to be eating Niall up. As they set off in the car Harry thinks about his pale face and the dark rings around his eyes and feels a desperate need to fix it.

It’s strange, really, to think that just a few days ago Niall had been prepared to leave them, to work it all out on his own. And yet somehow Harry doesn’t think that he would leave now, even if he had the chance. And perhaps he wouldn’t have before either, not really.

“Niall, you said we were going to get him back,” he says, leaning forwards against his seatbelt and placing a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“We will.” Niall nods.

“And he’ll be ok?” Harry presses.

“He will be.” Niall nods again, more certain this time.

Harry pauses for a moment, letting Niall focus on him. “Then it’s going to be ok, we’re going to get Liam back, and then we’re going to fix everything. We’ve got five days and five of us. We’re not going to leave you, we’re in this together and we’re going to sort it out.”

It’s a fairly empty promise, as far as they go, and it doesn’t really help the fact that Niall’s still pretty much the one who’s going to have to sort this out himself-- But something relaxes in his shoulders, and maybe the point isn’t that Harry, Louis, Zayn, and Liam are going to be that much help. Maybe it’s just enough that they aren’t going to leave him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halfway! Thank you so much to everyone who reads and comments and is sticking with me through this! 
> 
> This is all planned out, all the way to the end, so even if it seems a little weird I promise there is a reason for everything ;)


	9. Smooth Criminal

_ -but how are we supposed to remember?- _

_ -what can we?- _

_ -how?- _

 

Switzerland is warm and green and incredibly pleasant, which feels a bit offensive to Harry. Surely it should be cold and raining and miserable? Liam would want some drama.

“The air feels too happy,” Louis sighs as they stand in front of a tall building on the empty streets of Lausanne. It’s a Sunday, and apparently that means that Switzerland is  _ closed for business.  _ Still, even when shut, the Banque Cantonale Vaudois is impressive - a proud stone building, standing alone amongst a sea of tram-lines. 

Zayn and Harry nod in agreement.

“Niall?” Harry says carefully, “are you sure about this?”

“Positive.” Niall nods. “The pressure readings suggest that the next spitting out portal will be tonight, and it’ll be here.”

Harry stares up at the grand stone pillars and firmly closed doors of the bank.

“They won’t want to let us in at night Niall,” Harry says slowly.

“No.” Niall shrugs, “but one of us will need to be keeping watch in the vault and they aren’t going to like that at any time of day.”

Harry turns to stare at him incredulously. “Excuse me?”

“Well, we’ll have to search the whole building you see, we’re going to have to break in.”

“To a Swiss  _ bank vault _ ?” 

Niall nods. 

Harry shakes his head glumly, unable to see how this can possibly go well. “What are the odds of a portal happening inside a bloody bank? I mean, of all the places it could be.”

Niall sighs and stares at the floor. “I’m afraid that one’s my doing again. The portals are coming at locations where I’ve been - places where I’ve made small portals to before.”

“You made a portal into a bank vault,” Harry says flatly.

Niall nods. “Quite a few actually.”

“You’ve been…robbing banks.” Harry shuts his eyes. He wishes Liam were here. He wishes he wasn’t the only human being listening to this nonsense. 

“No, not at all!” Niall protests. “It’s my money, I put it there ages ago.” 

“Then why can’t you just go in and take it out?” Louis asks curiously. 

Harry nods in agreement, glancing around the nearly-empty streets. The air is still warm and Harry’s glad of it for the comfort it seems to give Zayn and Louis, even if it doesn’t seem right with Liam still missing. He reaches out a hand to brush Louis’ arm and then after a thought, does the same to Zayn.

Niall watches it all carefully, a slightly wistful smile on his face, so Harry makes a quick decision and reaches out for him too, but Niall steps away before he can get there. He drops his arm back to his side with his own strained smile.

“When I put it in I didn’t look much like this,” Niall winces, “and even if I had, I look too young now. The easiest thing to do is to just take it out myself.”

Harry pushes his mind carefully past the idea of Niall having had multiple bodies and thinks about the realities of what he’s just said. “So you’re taking money out of a personal lock box?”

“No, just the main vault,” Niall frowns, “why is that different?”

_ Huh.  _ For all his knowledge of aliens and physics, Niall apparently doesn’t understand the banking system of all things. He considers trying to explain that taking money from the bank vault  _ is not the same  _ as taking it from his own account because his own account will still show the same balance.

And then he thinks about it for a moment more and decides to let it go. Louis and Zayn are stranded aliens, Liam’s not even on the right planet and the sun is going to explode. It’s been a strange week really. What’s a little bank robbing between friends?

*

They head back to their hotel and Niall gets them a room with more of his ill-gotten cash. Harry stares at it dejectedly. He’s had enough of hotel rooms, if he’s honest. 

“So bank robbery?” Zayn says, coming to stand alongside him while Louis showers and Niall fiddles with Harry’s phone.

“Just breaking and entering this time,” Harry says with false calm, “robbery is where you steal things.”

Zayn nods. “We don’t have much use for that on our planet. There’s plenty of crime, but there’s nothing that you can really steal, you know? Well sort of, you can syphon, but that’s about it.”

Harry tries to think about Zayn’s blue homeworld for a moment, but his mind is quickly filled with the charred faces of the three bodies they’d come across.  _ Stop it. Liam’s fine.  _

“Sorry,” Zayn winces, clearly catching on, “it’s not comfortable there for one of these bodies, but he’ll be ok, Niall said he’d be ok.”

Harry shakes his head. “He could be anywhere though. What chance do we have that he’ll be here? The portals open to any place and any time.”

Zayn pauses for a moment. “I suppose so. But they’re all opening around this week and our planet is quite small - smaller than here, and there aren’t that many populated regions. There are less than a thousand major cities. Niall said the portals happened where there are people.”

Harry nods and smiles weakly at Zayn, not letting himself entertain any thoughts to the contrary.  _ He’s got a cat,  _ he thinks sarcastically.  _ He’ll be fine. _

“Anyway, the cities are all in contact through the current, If someone’s seen him, they’ll know,” Zayn finishes.

They stand in silence for a few moments before Zayn sighs and settles himself on the bed, dragging his hand carefully across the satin of the sheets. “This bed feels like a cold shiver,” he says absently, “only a nice one.”

Harry huffs a quiet laugh, happy to go with the topic change, at least for now. 

“Harry?”

He looks down at Zayn and then heads over to flop down on the bed beside him. “Yeah?”

“He likes you, you know,” he nods towards the doorway, behind which Louis is engaging in a truly marathon shower. Louis and Zayn are both guilty of abusing their shower privileges, but then Harry doesn’t know what emotion warm water on their skin feels like but it’s probably one of the good ones. 

His stomach does a little flip at Zayn’s words that he ruthlessly forces down. “I like him too.”

“But you don’t want to have sex with him?”

Harry splutters at the blunt question, trying to get his head around how they’d gotten to this point so quickly. “There hasn’t exactly been time?” He manages.

“But even if there was--Liam’s the same, I think.” Zayn shakes his head, “I know he likes me, but he doesn’t seem to want any more than that? Louis explained what Niall told him, about sex and relationships. We pair up on our world too, it’s natural. It’s how we reproduce, but Niall said it means more here, he said it’s how you show each other what you feel?”

“Not all relationships include sex.” Harry frowns, “or reproduction.”  _ Niall, what have you done? _

“But romantic relationships? Like a partnership?”

“Not all romantic relationships include sex either.” Harry shrugs, not sure where the conversation is going and even less sure of how to travel with it. 

“So neither of you are interested in sex?”

_ Sex with Louis.  _ Everything below Harry’s waist goes a bit tingly and he does his best to ignore it. “Liam definitely is, and me--well yeah, I’m interested.”

“Oh.” Zayn stares down at the bedspread, running his hand along it again. “So is it--it’s because we’re not from here?”

_ No,  _ Harry thinks, and then  _ yes.  _ Because it’s not because they aren’t human, but then at the same time it very much is. 

“No, it’s not--” Harry’s stumbling around the words that he doesn’t understand when the bathroom door opens. 

Steam pours out and Zayn shuts his eyes, breathing it in with a contented hum and seeming happy to drop the conversation, much to Harry’s relief. He stands up to head for the shower himself, but stops with one hand on the doorknob when Zayn speaks. “We’re not children, you know.”

Harry freezes. “I didn’t think--”

“I know you never said that,” Zayn jumps in as Louis stares between them curiously, “but we’re new here, we don’t know what some things are, and we’re new to these bodies, but we’re not children, we’re not innocent.” He grins suddenly, nodding over at Louis, “especially not that one.”

And then Zayn’s disappeared into the bathroom and Niall’s pulled the phone away from his face and is smirking in the corner. 

“He’s right you know.” Louis grins as he saunters towards Harry, his hair is still damp and he can’t help but notice that there’s nothing but a thin towel around his waist.

He watches with a dry mouth as a bead of water runs from Louis’ hair and down his neck, pooling along his collarbone and then picking up speed, racing down past his navel and disappearing into the towel.

Louis smirks. “I’m not even a little bit innocent.”

There’s another bead of water running down Louis’ chest and Harry desperately wants to lean forwards and lick it off him. He pushes himself shakily to his feet instead and keeps his eyes resolutely on Louis’ face.

“You know, there are a lot of chemicals inside this body, making my mouth feel strange and my heart go faster,” Louis says, licking his lips. 

Harry swallows heavily. 

“They make bits of me tingle, and bits of me  _ ache _ , and I’m pretty sure it’s because of you.” Louis takes a step forwards, until there’s just a breath between them, until Harry can feel the heat off his shower-hot skin. 

“I--but--Niall--” Harry croaks out, trying desperately to remember all the reasons that this isn’t a good idea right now.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Niall pipes up from behind them, “human reproduction isn’t something i’ve had much to do with yet, I’m curious to see how it all fits together - so to speak.”

“ _ Jesus christ, _ ” Harry splutters.

“But I can see now,” Louis continues, “that maybe it’s not  _ me  _ who’s the one who isn’t ready yet.” He looks up through his eyelashes and Harry’s breath catches. “So instead of doing what my body is telling me to do, I’m going to wait until you’re ready to follow yours.”

Louis takes a step backwards and drops the towel, walking naked and unashamed past him, picking his clothes up off the bed as Harry splutters. “I--Lou--”

“Right then,” Niall says, jumping up and interrupting Harry’s agonizing, “if sex is off the table, let’s plan a break-in.”

*

Planning the break-in, as it turns out, mostly consists of looking up bank tellers, using Niall’s dubious connections to find out where they live, and then making a series of extremely fraught portals into an innocent man’s house in order to steal his keys.

It’s actually easier than Harry thinks it really should be, but then, presumably it would be harder without the use of strategically placed portals. 

It isn’t until they’ve dodged the security guard and Harry’s unlocking the door with one of their ill-gotten gains that he stops to wonder why they’re breaking in at all.

“Niall,” he hisses from his position crouched behind a long wooden counter, “why do we need to be  _ inside _ the bank again?”

Niall glances over and cocks his head to the side. “To try and find Liam?”

“But if Liam comes through they’d just bring him outside, wouldn’t they?” Louis asks, picking up on Harry’s train of thought.

“They’d bring him to  _ prison _ ,” Harry snorts, flashing a small smile at Louis, “but at least we could go get him.”

“Ah, but that’s because you’re missing the trick.” Niall’s mouth quirks up but it doesn’t reach his eyes, “I can’t make big portals but I’ve had an idea of how I can hold them open, convert them so they’re more like the ones that I make--ones that go both ways. If he doesn’t come through, we’re going to go and look for him.”

“Oh,” Harry says.

They’re silent as that sinks in. Harry’s pretty sure that none of them are very keen on going back to the blue planet with the burning air, but he’s equally sure that they’ll all do it, for Liam. They slink quietly across the large open lobby, ducking down behind desks where they can, listening out for security. Niall’s done something mysterious to the cameras that Harry assumes is another one of his ‘effect on matter’ traits, so at least they won’t be seen.   

“It’s lucky the portal’s due at nighttime when no one else is here,” Zayn comments absently, tugging on the black poloneck that Niall had insisted on. Really, Harry should have been more suspicious when Niall had bought multiple sets of dark clothes at the airport.

“There seems to be a correlation between the time of day that my portals were opened and when they are appearing now,” Niall says.

“So you’ve been robbing banks at night then?” Harry asks, entirely unsurprised. 

“Not  _ robbing _ ,” Niall points out stubbornly, “but people find it a bit alarming when a floating shiny circle with a hand poking out of it suddenly appears.”

“I just bet they do,” Harry says dryly.

“Yeah, well-- _ Guard! _ ” Niall hisses.

They duck hurriedly underneath the closest desk, Harry shuffling into the corner and instinctively pulling Louis tightly against him. Niall and Zayn crowd in behind him and glance over in amusement. The room is large and the guard is at the far side, and Harry’s got to the point now where he isn’t even nervous, but that’s no reason to take chances. 

The guard walks the room from end to end and there’s a moment when he’s sure that none of them are even breathing, but then the guard is heading back out and Harry finally lets Louis go.

“You know on our world that would be considered aggressive,” Louis points out, straightening his dark-green t-shirt and stretching his torso out as they climb from beneath the desk.

“Huh? Oh, sorry!” Harry stumbles. 

“But then it made me feel pretty warm on the inside, and apparently that’s how it works here,” Louis finishes.

“Definitely not aggressive,” Niall snorts, “unless it’s aggressive protection, or aggressive cuddling maybe.”

Harry smiles, feeling better from the gentle teasing. “I’d rather be an aggressive cuddler than a bank robber, Niall.”

“Well I’ve got good news for you Harry mate, you’re about to be both.” Niall grins at him, the white of his teeth catching the faint light filtering in from outside.

They wander around for a while longer, the silence between them comfortable for once, and Harry could almost forget that they’re breaking the law and just enjoy the moment of calm.

That is, until Zayn pricks up his nose.

There’s no pull this time, which they take as a good sign - there hadn’t been for any of the other spitting out portals either. There is the smell of pineapple though, and that’s what Zayn notices.

“Something’s changed in the air,” he points out quietly. They’ve moved past the lobby and into one of the private meeting rooms. The guard’s not been back down since the last time, so presumably they’re in the clear there. 

“What kind of something?” Niall asks quietly.

Louis looks up and sniffs. “Oh, it’s that smell again, the one that makes me hungry.”

“That way,” Zayn agrees, nodding to another door. 

They shuffle quietly down the corridor and around corners, following alien noses like they’re bloodhounds chasing the smell. It’s gotten strong enough that even Harry’s twenty-something year-old nose can smell it when they finally come to a stop.

Predictably, it’s coming from the vault. 

*

“It doesn’t make much difference,” Niall points out for the millionth time, as he slowly cranks open the heavy door. It’s on smooth runners but it’s still too heavy to be silent and Harry winces every time there’s a  _ clang _ . “We’re not supposed to be in the bank at all.”

_ Of course it makes a difference.  _ Harry thinks, but he keeps his mouth shut.

The door opens with a whisper of escaping air and  _ there it is. _

The portal’s already started the process--it’s about a foot in diameter and growing fast. Loose bundles of Swiss Francs and Euros are being picked up and tossed carelessly through the air in the small storm that it’s making. 

It’s loud.

“Niall we have to shut the door!” Harry hisses.

“Can’t. It’s hermetically sealed in here, we’d run out of air before we managed to get out,” Niall whisper-shouts back.

“Then make a portal and suck the air in through that?” Louis suggests.

Niall frowns. “I hadn’t thought of that. Nice idea. We’d still get caught though, we can’t open it from the inside.”

“Then make a portal so you can open it from outside?” Zayn suggests.

Niall only shrugs, leaving the door open.

_ We’re going to get caught anyway.  _ Harry thinks glumly, but at least if they can rescue Liam it’ll have been worth it.

The pineapple smell strengthens further and he gets ready, bouncing on the balls of his feet,  _ come on Liam,  _ and then the portal is growing, and it’s human sized, and they’re waiting...and waiting.

“Niall where is he?” Zayn hisses as minutes pass.

Niall shakes his head, and then horribly, terrifyingly, the portal starts shrinking. 

“Niall, it’s closing! Do something!” Harry shouts. 

Beside him Niall nods, and then he’s shutting his eyes and tensing and the storm seems to hold it’s breath. 

“It’s steady,” Louis breaths, “you did it.”

“Zayn, you take my hand, then Louis take his, then Harry,” Niall grits out, “ _ quickly. _ I have to stay outside to hold it. You’ve got a minute, maybe two.”

_ I’m going in.  _ Harry’s stomach drops with the sudden realization. He’s on the end.  _ I’m going in. Niall chose me. It makes sense _ , he tries to tell himself, because Niall has to stay outside to hold it open and it’s so much worse for Louis and Zayn. He takes a deep breath. 

The portal is so, so bright, and the smell is too much and Harry is shaking as he stumbles towards it.

“Now!” Niall yells from behind him. “Harry, go now!”

He holds his breath and shuts his eyes and just moves. There’s a moment of resistance, of pressure and Harry’s almost starting to panic that he’s not going to be able to go through at all--and then there’s a  _ pop.  _

Harry takes small breaths as he shuffles forwards. The air is thick, clinging, and warmer than he remembers. His feet shuffle along the floor, dragging and heavy like wading through gel, and there’s a tight, electric buzz in the air and harsh flickers of surprise like flames licking at his skin.

_ Liam?  _ He thinks, pressing his mouth firmly shut and trying not to panic as the thought is whipped out of his head just like before.  _ Liam! _

_ LIAM,  _ echoes back at him, and it’s so loud it’s crushing. Harry’s knees bow and he struggles to keep his feet. He’s in a city, he must be, he’s landed right in the middle of everything, his thoughts a panicked jumble in the burning air. 

Calm hits him in a wave, like a terrible, hollow pressure, racing over him and obliterating the fear.  

_ That wasn’t Liam,  _ Harry thinks dazedly. 

_ WE ARE NOT LIAM. _

Harry falls to his knees, sluggish in the thick air.  _ Too loud! _

He opens his eyes, slowly, painfully. The air is the deep blue that he remembers and his feet are once again planted on solid green rock. He spares a vague thought that  _ at least the floor is solid _ , and then tries to somehow drag the words back when they seep out of his head and into the air. He lifts his arms uselessly, grasping for something tangible, something physical.

_ WHAT ARE YOU?  _ The aliens think, and it hammers at Harry’s head, pressing down at him, making his teeth ache.

_ Too loud, pain!  _ He tries again, trying to remember what Niall had said last time,  _ not like you! Can’t take it! _

The aliens are a shimmer in the air around him as he struggles to his feet, trying to stay on task. His skin is prickling and his eyes hurt but he has a job to do.  _ Two minutes,  _ Niall had said.  _ I have two minutes. _

_ FOR WHAT?  _ The voices are quieter, and it’s not by much but it’s bearable. They’re cautious enough of the portal to be keeping their distance, so at least he doesn’t have to worry about being touched by one.  

_ To find Liam,  _ he thinks, gritting his teeth.  _ Like me. Another. _

_ LIAM? _

Harry nods slowly and tries to project the feeling of  _ searching, question,  _ but he doesn’t really know how. He shakes his hands against the buzzing tingling  _ curiosity  _ pouring off the aliens. His lungs are starting to prickle now as he takes breath after breath. It starts as a prickle, he remembers, then an itch, and then it burns. Still at least he can breathe. But if he can breathe then shouldn’t he be connected to Niall somehow?

_ Louis!  _ He thinks suddenly.  _ Louis are you here? _

He turns his head sluggishly as the aliens send out even more  _ curiosity  _ that tingles on his tongue like a copper penny. Louis must be here, how else could he be breathing? The last time, without Niall--it’d been like choking, like drowning in a deep blue gel. 

_ NO LOUIS,  _ they echo,  _ THERE IS ONLY YOU. _

Harry flexes his fingers and his hands are empty, they’re empty, somehow he’s let go of Louis--how is he breathing?

_ NO, WRONG, CALM, THERE IS ANOTHER,  _ the aliens think.

Harry starts to turn his body and something stops him. Relief rushes off his skin and  _ out _ as he cranes his head--there’s a hand, a hand poking through the portal and gripping tightly at the waist of his trousers, knuckles just barely brushing his skin, but it’s enough.

_ Louis,  _ he thinks with more relief that washes off him in tingling rivulets, quickly lost in a huge wave of alien  _ curiosity.  _ He reaches slowly around, watching as the rest of Louis slowly materializes out of the portal. One of his hands is still poking back through onto their own world.  _ Zayn,  _ Harry thinks.

_ I’ve got you,  _ Louis replies, sending a wash of calm reassurance dancing down Harry’s cheek. 

He reaches back and takes Louis’ wrist, sliding his hand down until they can tangle their fingers together. Louis is radiating a solid, touchable  _ calm,  _ and it seems to be soothing the aliens around them because the curiosity is pulling back a little. Harry shuts his eyes and tries to do the same, relaxing as much as he is able. 

_ YOU RESPECT THE AIR,  _ the aliens send, and Harry can feel a bright, slightly sickly feeling of  _ approval  _ on his tongue.  _ WHY ARE YOU HERE? _

_ Please be less,  _ Louis sends with another wash of calm,  _ these forms can not take it. We look for others like us. _

More approval pours off them and the heavy pressure that Harry had assumed was the weight of the air steps back. He takes a deep breath--more easily this time.

_ Appreciation, gratitude,  _ Louis sends. 

There’s a flicker that passes through the aliens, some sort of shared communication that Harry can’t follow, and then there’s a single voice answering them.

_ There was another, but not here. Far from here. We heard about it, messages through the current. The other travelled with a companion, something smaller, different again, a different shape. They left, the other left. We found them a way out and they went back.  _

There’s a strange sucking that Harry remembers from before.  _ A portal,  _ He thinks.

_ An anomaly,  _ they send, and then  _ ANGER. _

The sudden fury of it presses down at Harry’s head, forcing him to his knees.

_ PAIN!  _ Louis bellows back, pushing it out of himself like cold, driving rain, and the familiarity of it sends a desperate flare of shock through Harry.

The aliens recoil from it, pulling away. 

_ The air is shared,  _ Louis snaps, and is rewarded by a staggering wave of calm streaked through with  _ apology.  _

Harry shakes his head stupidly, trying to push back, trying to peel off the anger that clings to the calm like a poisoned skin.  _ They pull you away,  _ Harry tries to nod.  _ We know _ .  _ They pull you from your world. They pull us too. _

The anger ebbs and flows, rolling like a wave. 

_ They are dangerous,  _ a single voice says.

_ We’re sorry,  _ Louis sends with a wash of prickly regret.  _ We do not cause this, but we are sorry. They are safe. When they go through they are safe, they do not end. _

There’s a hitch in the air, a gap, like a pause in conversation as if the aliens are considering the words, and then suddenly there’s a desperate sickening, sticky  _ anxiety. _

And then Harry can’t breathe. 

_ No. _

He gasps more of the blue air but there’s no oxygen in it now and he’s coughing, spluttering.

_ THE ANOMALY CLOSES.  _ The voices boom, a sudden, crushing weight. 

Harry’s head is filling rapidly with static and he turns to see the portal flickering, flickering and starting to close. 

_ Louis?  _ Harry thinks, as panic rushes off him.

_ THE OTHER IS GONE,  _ the aliens boom,  _ THE OTHER WAS PULLED. _

The air is burning now, searing, cutting through his body--

And then there’s nothing.

Nothing but calm. 

_ WE CANNOT HELP YOU,  _ the voices shout, pressing the calm around him like a thick warm blanket, even as the pressure forces him to his knees and the air chokes him.  _ WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO HELP YOU. YOU MUST TELL US. _

_ Portal.  _ Harry manages through the dizzyness. How long can humans go without air,  _ minutes _ ? 

_ THE ANOMALY. YOU MUST MOVE.  _

_ Can’t,  _ Harry chokes.  _ Can’t breathe, need air. Need to go back. Will die, escape, end-- _

There’s another sudden, hollow drop as the air empties of all emotion, and he has a moment to pant in rapid lungfuls of suffocating blue gel before the air fills with  _ everything.  _

_ YOU MUST MOVE! GO!  _ The aliens boom, and the emotions rush across him like a storm.  _ GO! YOU MUST GO BACK! _

Harry staggers to the side in the sudden desperate searing panic. It’s like being burned, like being flayed.  _ They don’t understand death,  _ Harry’s mind drifts as he starts to lose himself,  _ they understand ending though.  _

_ THERE MUST BE NO ENDING! YOU MUST GO BACK!  _

And then something in the air changes and it’s like being trapped in a blizzard. It’s like ice and fire at the same time and freezing and burning and aching and twisting and it’s raking across his skin, tearing him open and forcing him down, and through it all it’s somehow  _ pushing him. _

_ GO BACK!  _

His vision is starting to spot but the force of the air is pushing him, pushing him, and now he can’t see, and he can’t hear, and there’s something moving through the haze through the blue and the creeping numbness.

_ HARRY! _

And then there’s a hand on his arm and he’s being  _ yanked. _

*

He lands on a stone floor, coughing, retching, and held tightly between sturdy arms that must be Louis and Zayn. His eyes are screwed shut, aching from the painful air, and the smell of pineapple is clinging to his skin.

“Niall!” He shakes his head, pawing desperately at the arms holding him. “He’s not there, he’s not there. Niall, they said he’s gone, he could be anywhere, any  _ time,  _ how are we supposed to find him?”

“We’ll find him, I promise, but right now we have some other issues,” Niall replies slowly.

“Liam’s gone, Niall, what could be more important than that?” Harry snaps, finally forcing his sore eyes open to take in the dark bank vault, Niall, Louis, and Zayn, and the five armed men and women standing in front of the door.

“How about bank robbery?” Comes the heavily french-accented reply. 

*

“We didn’t find Liam, and now we’re Swiss criminals.” Harry sulks as he sits on the hard metal bench of the holding cell. He still smells like a fruit salad and his skin is prickling and he’s feeling sick. Louis presumably isn’t much better, although he at least hadn’t been separated from Niall’s influence. It seems Zayn had panicked when the portal had started to close again and yanked Louis so hard that he’d lost hold of Harry.

Niall shakes his head from where he’s been pacing all night. It’s nearing 8am--they should be finding out what’s going to happen to them soon. “But we got some good news. He’s back on earth, that’s what counts, we’ll find him. And I wouldn’t worry about being a criminal, it’s not your name on the passport anyway.”

As relieved as Harry is to know that Liam was most likely safe, the rest of Niall’s words pour in one ear and stick uncomfortably in his head. “What,” he says flatly. 

“Yeah, well, your name’s Bernard,” Niall replies absentmindedly, “and Louis is Rover and Zayn is Felix.”

“What?” Harry hisses, jumping up from his seat and advancing on the pacing man.

“Well we’re in Greece right now aren’t we?” Niall says, turning back to give Harry his full attention, “I mean, the versions of us that haven’t travelled back in time are in Greece, so they have our passports. The ones we’re supposed to have are still back in the car in the future.”

Harry stops in his tracks as that troubling thought soaks in. “Are you telling me that we’re about to get busted for having fake passports?”

“Nah, they’re real passports, don’t worry. I get them from the passport office. I have a friend there. I got these made last night after Liam got sucked through, figured we would need them. I just took a few photos of us all with your phone and he did the rest, he goes in at night to print them and leaves them on his desk and I stick my hand through and pick them up. Then he sorts out the electronic bits in the morning when the office opens. He’s made all my passports, and Louis’ and Zayn’s. Don’t worry, it’s all above board. ”

It is absolutely  _ not _ above board, but they seem to have been working so far, and if it means that there is a criminal record in Switzerland for a Mr. Bernard  _ Something _ and not for a Mr. Harry Styles then he might just have to let it go.

“You’re a bad influence, Niall,” he mutters as he flops back down onto his bench, shuffling over to lean against Louis. He and Zayn don’t seem to be having much issue with being arrested, but then, why would they? They’re still so new to all this. 

Niall flashes a grin at him. “That’s Mr. Sahara Sheldon, to you, Bernard.”

Harry snorts, settling back to wait.

They’re silent for the next half hour as time ticks slowly past. Louis has been tapping out some strange pattern on his hand that he suspects are actually words of some sort or at least feelings, and the rhythmic gentle motions have been lulling Harry into a stupor. He’s probably supposed to have been teaching Louis about human emotions, he muses lazily, and he’s ended up being schooled in alien instead. He taps at Louis’ wrist in retaliation, wondering what his fingers might be saying.

A sudden clang has them all leaping up, and then all of a sudden everything’s moving too fast and too slow all at once.

“ Vous avez été renvoyé, ” their jailor says.

“They’re letting us go,” Niall translates with a frown.

“Votre caution a été payée.”

“Our bail has been paid,” he frowns harder.

Harry shakes his head as they’re shuffled unceremoniously out of the cell door.

“Do not leave Lausanne,” their jailor finishes in a thick Swiss-French accent, “for now, we keep your passports.”

“We’re being let go?” Harry stammers, unable to catch up with the situation.

“Apparently,” Niall says cautiously.

“Someone paid for us to be let out?” Zayn asks.

Harry shakes his head, disbelieving. “But who would do that.” 

“That would be me,” a clear English accent pipes up suddenly.

Harry looks up into familiar eyes. “Oh,” he says. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was is a good day to put out a chapter? Probably not. But here I am keeping you guessing with my wild schedule. Remeber when it was a chapter a week? I liked those days. Still, chapter 10 is coming along now so the gap shouldn't be quite so long, and every single person who likes or comments or just takes a gamble reading a WIP has my undying appreciation. xx


End file.
